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APOLLONIUS  OF  TYANA 

FROM  A.D.  17  TO  A.D.  98 


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A  SKETCH  OF  THE  LIFE 


Apollonius  of  Tyana 

OR  THE 

FIRST  TEN  DECADES  OF  OUR  ERA 

BY 

Daniel  M.  T'R  edwell-Q- 


“eH  aocptac  TC7JY7]  epset.” 

—  Old  A  dage 


3? 


NEW-YORK 

FREDERIC  TREDWELL,  78  NASSAU  ST. 

1886 


BOSTON  r>'r^ 


LIBRARY 
HILL,  MASS, 


Copyright,  1886,  by  Frederic  Tredwell. 


A 

/  \ 


CONTENTS. 

Apollonius. 

Prefatory  Chapter . 

Born  at  Tyana . . . 

Put  to  School  at  Tarsus . . 

Removes  with  his  Master  to  JEgm . 

Death  of  his  Father . . 

Distributes  his  Estate  left  by  his  Father  to 

his  Relatives . . . 

Spends  Five  Years  in  Silence  under  the  Py¬ 
thagorean  Code . 

Quells  a  Riot  in  Aspendus  . . 

Visits  Antioch . . 

“  many  Cities  and  Temples  of  Syria . 

Travels  into  India  . 

Meets  Damis  at  Ninus . 

Returns  to  Antioch . . 

Goes  to  Seleucia . . . 

Takes  Ship  for  Cyprus . 

Visits  Paphos,  Temples,  etc.  . . . 

Ship  puts  in  at  Rhodes . 

Continues  his  Journey  to  Ephesus . 

Visits  Smyrna . 

iii 


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>  i  '  %  % 

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PAGE. 

I 

28 

42 

44 

48 

49 

58 

59 
61 
66 

7 1 

72 

77 

78 

79 
82 

85 

86 


92 


IV 


CONTENTS, 


Apollonius.  page. 

Visits  Pergamus . 96 

“  Ilium,  Tomb  of  Achilles .  97 

Sails  for  Lemnos .  101 

Visits  Tomb  of  Palamedes  at  Methymna .  101 

Goes  to  Samos,  Mytilene .  105 

Sails  for  Athens .  108 

Visits  Oracle  of  Delphi  . . .  126 

“  Thermopylae .  127 

“  Dodona .  128 

“  Marathon .  130 

“  Academy  of  Plato .  13 1 

“  Eleusis,  Temples,  Mysteries .  13 1 

“  Megara .  132 

“  Corinth .  133 

“  Olympian  Games .  135 

“  Sparta .  140 

“  Epidaurus . 143 

Sails  for  Crete . . . 144 

Visits  Gnossus .  146 

Sails  for  Rome . 146 

Lands  at  Puteoli,  Italy . 147 

Visits  Rome,  under  Nero .  15 1 

Arrested  for  High  Treason .  154 

Escapes,  and  goes  to  Spain .  166 

Visits  Gades .  167 

“  Africa,  Carthage .  178 

“  Sicily,  Lilyb^eum . 179 


CONTENTS. 


v 


Apollonius.  page. 

Visits  Agrigentum .  182 

“  Syracuse .  185 

“  ^Etna,  Catana .  187 

Sails  for  Greece . : .  19 1 

Visits  Leucadia .  191 

“  Corinth .  192 

“  Athens .  192 

“  Chios .  194 

“  Rhodes .  195 

“  Cnidus .  200 

Sails  for  Egypt  . .  200 

Arrives  at  Alexandria .  200 

Visits  Sais .  233 

“  Heliopolis .  234 

“  Memphis .  236 

“  The  Pyramids . * .  237 

“  Antinoe,  Lycopolis .  239 

“  COPTOS  .  240 

“  Thebes .  241 

“  Phil^e,  Memnon .  244 

“  The  Gymnosophists .  250 

“  Pentapolis . 270 

Returns  to  Alexandria .  274 

Visits  Idumea .  275 

“  Phcenicia .  275 

“  Tarsus . 281 

“  Smyrna .  287 


VI 


CONTENTS . 


Apollonius.  page. 

Visits  Corinth .  290 

“  Puteoli .  292 

“  Rome,  under  Domitian  . . .  302 

“  Surrenders  to  the  Authorities .  302 

“  Imprisoned .  304 

Interview  with  Domitian .  312 

Sent  back  to  Prison .  314 

Brought  out  for  Trial .  319 

Charges  made .  320 

Makes  his  Defense .  321 

Ends  his  Defense .  343 

Returns  to  Puteoli .  344 

Sails  for  Sicily .  345 

Visits  Syracuse .  345 

Sails  for  Greece .  345 

Visits  Olympia .  346 

Goes  into  Ionia,  Smyrna,  Ephesus . 347 

Death . 348 

Summary . 349 


PREFATORY  CHAPTER. 

THE  PRETEXT,  THE  PURPOSE,  AND  THE  METHOD. 

IT  is  a  custom  too  much  observed  even  among 
Christian  teachers  to  extol  the  traditionary  virtues 
of  Zoroaster,  Confucius,  Christna,  and  Buddha  to 
the  prejudice  of  our  Blessed  Redeemer.1  There  is 
nothing  in  these  allegorical  biographies  which  rises  in 
sublimity  to  the  miracles  of  our  Lord  or  the  simplicity 
of  his  life.  Nor  are  they  entitled  to  equal  considera- 


1  Moncure  D.  Conway,  M.  A.,  in 
Modern  Thought ,  says  :  “  The  world 
has  been  for  a  long  time  engaged  in 
writing  lives  of  Jesus.  In  the  fourth 
gospel  it  is  said,  ‘  There  are  also 
many  other  things  that  Jesus  did, 
the  which,  if  they  should  be  written 
every  one,  I  suppose  that  even  the 
world  itself  could  not  contain  the 
books  that  should  be  written.  Amen.’ 
The  library  of  such  books  has  grown 
since  then.  But  when  we  come  to 
examine  them  one  startling  fact  con¬ 


fronts  us  :  all  of  these  books  relate 
to  a  personage  concerning  whom 
there  does  not  exist  a  single  scrap 
of  contemporary  information  —  not 
one  !  By  accepted  tradition  he  was 
born  in  the  reign  of  Augustus,  the 
great  literary  age  of  the  nation  of 
which  he  was  a  subject.  In  the 
Augustan  Age  historians  flourished ; 
poets,  orators,  critics,  and  travelers 
abounded.  Yet  not  one  mentions 
even  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ,  much 
less  any  incident  of  his  life.  It  is 


2 


PREFACE. 


tion  as  historical  relations.  They  rest  upon  no  such 
reliable  substratum  of  history  as  the  life  and  doctrines 
of  Jesus.  #  #  *  And  I  here  challenge  any  man  to 

produce  from  the  accumulated  dust  of  eighteen  centu¬ 
ries  a  record  of  the  life,  sayings,  and  doings  of  any 
personage  so  well  attested  and  by  so  many  reputable 
witnesses  as  is  that  of  our  Saviour  in  the  account  of 
Matthew.  ” —  Brooklyn  Clergyman. 

We  refrain  from  giving  the  name  of  the  author  of  the 
foregoing  quoted  words  on  the  ground  that  he  may 
deem  it  unfair  to  be  put  in  a  position  not  of  his  own 
seeking,  where  he  may  be  called  upon  to  defend  an 
utterance  made  five  years  ago ;  and  more  especially 
as  he  has  greatly  modified  his  views  on  the  subject 
of  revelation. 

We  however  accept  the  challenge,  and  not  in  a  humor 
of  bravado  or  conceit,  nor  as  a  contest  for  victory,  but 
with  a  sincere  desire  to  discover  the  truth. 

The  character  which  we  have  selected  for  this  experi- 
mentum  crucis  is  that  of  Apollonius  of  Tyana.  He 
seems  especially  fitted  for  this  ordeal,  inasmuch  as  he 
is  said  to  have  been  a  contemporary  of  Jesus,  born  in 


true  that  there  are  other  great  men 
who  appear  to  have  been  overlooked 
or  little  noticed  in  contemporaneous 
literature.  It  is  a  matter  of  astonish¬ 
ment  that  from  the  Elizabethan  Age 
we  have  so  few  contemporary  notices 
of  Shakespeare;  yet  that  poet  is  men- 
tionedby  at  least  twenty  of  his  cotem¬ 
poraries.  Of  Jesus  we  have  not  one 
notice,  not  the  faintest,  slightest  sen¬ 
tence  or  word  on  which  history  can  fix 
as  certain  evidence  that  lie  lived  at  all.  ” 


Charles  Francis  Dupuis,  a  cele¬ 
brated  French  philosopher,  in  his 
Origins  de  tons  les  Cultes ,  A.  D. 
1794,  vii.  358,  has  not  hesitated  to 
say  that  the  fact  of  such  a  person  as 
Jesus  of  Nazareth  having  ever  ex¬ 
isted  is  but  a  doubtful  one,  and  that 
the  account  we  have  of  the  life  of 
Christ  should  be  altogether  regarded 
as  another  allegory  of  the  sun,  more 
bungling  than  that  of  Osiris  or 
Hercules. 


PREFACE. 


3 


the  year  one  of  our  era.  It  is  claimed  that  he  was 
divinely  conceived,  and  that  he  came  with  a  revelation 
as  the  saviour  of  humanity.  At  all  events,  his  written 
life  is  surrounded  by  a  halo  of  miraculous  phenomena 
almost  identical  with  that  recorded  by  Matthew  in  his 
gospel  of  Jesus  Christ.  And  while  Jesus  is  said  to  have 
been  casting  out  devils  in  Galilee,  Apollonius  was, 
according  to  a  tradition  quite  as  trustworthy,  render¬ 
ing  mankind  a  similar  service  in  Greece.  “  The  age,” 
says  the  Westminster  Review ,  January,  1882,  page  3, 
“  abounded  in  impostors  arrogating  to  themselves  the 
attributes  and  prerogatives  of  divine  messengers,  boast¬ 
ing  themselves  the  vehicles  of  divine  revelation,  and 
fattening  upon  the  superstition  and  credulity  of  the 
multitude  who  always  believed  in  the  last  incarnation, 
and  pronounced  all  antecedent  pretenders  impostors. 
The  most  celebrated  of  these  was  Apollonius  of 
Tyana,  who  obtained  a  measure  of  success  second 
only  to  that  of  Christ.  He  advocated  a  morality  and 
virtue  far  in  advance  of  the  religious  sentiments  of  his 
age.”1 

Although  from  the  very  beginning  of  this  inquiry 
to  its  final  termination  we  have  never  regretted  the 
undertaking, —  for  the  pleasure  of  the  pursuit  has  been 
intense,  and  our  enthusiasm  has  never  flagged,— yet  we 


l  Lecky,  in  his  History  of  Euro¬ 
pean  Morals ,  says  :  “  Apollonius  of 
Tyana,  at  the  close  of  the  Flavian 
period,  endeavored,  with  noble  pur¬ 
pose,  to  unite  moral  teaching  with 
religious  practices  ;  the  oracles, 
which  had  long  ceased,  were  par¬ 
tially  restored  under  Antoninus. 


The  calamities  and  visible  decline 
of  the  empire  withdrew  the  minds 
of  men  from  that  proud  patriotic 
worship  of  Roman  greatness.  It  was 
this  worship,  imbued  with  the  high¬ 
est  moral  doctrines  or  stoicism, which 
Apollonius  labored  to  restore.” — 
Leckfs  Morals ,  vol.  i.  p.  339. 


4 


PREFACE. 


must,  in  some  confusion,  confess  that  it  was  an  un¬ 
guarded  moment  when  we  took  up  the  gauntlet,  for 
from  our  point  of  view  this  subject  (sacerdotalism  and 
its  contingents)  has  been  wonderfully  overvalued  and 
overwrought  by  the  greater  intellects  of  the  world,  and 
that  it  has  never  furnished  results  to  humanity  com¬ 
mensurate  with  the  mental  outlay ;  the  crafty  ones 
cannot  avoid  confessing  that  we  are  reaping  from 
this  contention-strewn  field  of  eighteen  hundred  years 
but  an  indifferent  harvest ;  that  in  blood  and  treasures 
the  gospel  experiment  has  been  a  dearly  bought  and 
sterile  luxury. 

As  to  this  unassuming  volume,  the  compensation  for 
the  time  and  labor  devoted  to  it  has  not  been  in  the 
dethronement  of  the  little  fetich  of  the  very  learned 
divine  who  challenged  to  the  combat,  and  who  was 
forgotten  on  the  very  threshold  of  the  work,  and 
never  again  thought  of  during  its  progress,  but  in  the 
substratum  of  historic  and  literary  wealth  which  has 
been  unearthed  by  the  necessary  subsoil  process  of 
the  work ;  and  in  scientific  issues  and  literary  adven¬ 
tures  extending  beyond  the  compass  of  the  subject ;  as 
well  as  the  extension  and  broadening  of  the  horizon  of 
knowledge,  all  of  which  have  been  an  impulsion,  and 
have  entered  into  the  spirit  of  the  book. 

It  is  true,  however,  that  we  have  by  implication  here 
arraigned  for  construction  a  written  instrument  (Mat¬ 
thew’s  gospel),  which  has  arrogated  to  itself  issues 
more  important  to  mankind  than  all  the  instruments 
put  upon  trial  for  construction,  legal  or  otherwise,  since 
the  foundation  of  courts  having  competent  jurisdiction. 
And  not  only  this  gospel  itself,  but  there  are  also 


PREFACE. 


5 


many  specious  and  evasive  issues  involved  by  its  apol¬ 
ogists,  all  made  significant  only  from  the  personal 
interest  which  has  clustered  about  it  (the  gospel),  and 
not  from  any  primary  importance  to  mankind,  which 
are  necessarily  brought  under  the  ban  of  this  work. 

The  ingenious  and  interlarded  fictions  of  Eusebius, 
Lardner,  Renan,  Strauss  and  Schenkel,  which  were 
pregnant  with  great  promises  of  enlightenment,  have 
done  nothing  save  the  entailment  of  vast  complexities 
upon  the  subject.  They  have  with  consummate  strategy 
always  avoided  the  real  question  at  issue,  and  led  the 
army  of  earnest  inquirers  through  devious  and  un¬ 
familiar  paths  away  from  the  direct  road,  until  it  has 
become  infinitely  a  greater  mental  effort  to  recover  the 
lost  trail  than  to  have  originally  solved  the  whole 
problem.  Their  biography  of  Jesus  is,  what  they 
would  have  it,  seen  through  the  film  of  their  ancestral 
and  educational  bias,  rather  than  what  it  is  from  the 
record. 

The  superstructure  of  the  biography  of  Apollonius, 
like  that  of  Jesus,  is  upon  miracle;  the  partisans  of 
each  lay  claim  to  the  supernatural,  the  logic  and  argu¬ 
ment  of  which  we  deem  unworthy  of  altercation  by 
any  zealous  historian,  no  matter  what  their  quality  or 
the  nature  of  their  attestation.  We  do  not  mean  to 
say  that  a  miracle  may  not  be  sufficiently  attested  to 
entitle  it  to  belief;  but  we  do  mean  to  say  with  Hume, 
“  that  no  amount  of  testimony  can  make  it  true.”  We 
have  read  the  wonderful  miracles  of  Jesus  and  of  Apol¬ 
lonius,  and  shall  not  demur  to  any  vantage  ground  the 
partisans  of  either  may  feel  that  they  have  obtained 
from  the  assumption  of  their  sublime  pretensions.  To 


6 


PREFACE, 


sustain  ourselves,  however,  against  the  charge  of  dis¬ 
dainfully  treating  a  subject  so  important,  and  so  con¬ 
clusive,  professedly,  to  others,  we  have  devoted  an 
introductory  chapter  to  our  reasons  for  discarding  all 
miraculous  events  from  our  history.  Our  reasons  are 
by  no  means  original  or  new ;  they  have  been  com¬ 
mon  property  of  all  thinking  men  and  women  for  ages. 
Their  logical  arrangement  may  be  somewhat  novel, 
and  may,  in  consequence  of  their  new  mountings,  strike 
home  with  a  force  never  before  felt.  Miracles,  although 
more  or  less  impertinent  to  our  subject,  would  probably 
not  have  been  thought  of  here  had  not  John  Henry 
Newman,  D.  D.,  in  his  Life  of  Apollonius  Tyaneus , 
thought  proper  to  supplement  his  work  with  a  disser¬ 
tation  covering  nearly  fifty  pages,  on  The  Miracles  of 
Scripture ,  drawing  strong  contrasts  between  them  and 
those  of  Apollonius. 

Now,  as  above  stated,  we  do  not  deem  our  reasons 
or  arguments  entirely  new ;  yet  we  shall  consider  it  no 
compliment  to  be  merely  told  that  they  are  as  new,  as 
original,  and  as  conclusive,  as  the  faded  arguments 
presented  by  John  Henry  Newman  in  favor  of  the 
Christ  miracles  and  against  all  others. 

Our  only  apology  for  this  chapter  on  miracles  is,  that 
we  have  been  seduced  into  the  folly  by  the  example 
and  the  vagaries  of  that  great  man. 

From  the  reservoir  of  human  experience  we  learn  at 
least  one  great  truth,  that  the  succession  of  events  is  an 
endless  chain  of  effects  which  are  in  their  turn  causes 
to  new  effects,  all  fully  related  and  conditioned,  and 
which  constitute  individually  and  collectively  the 
sublimest  truths  in  the  universe.  Buckle  says  :  “  Every 


PREFACE. 


7 


new  fact  is  the  necessary  product  of  antecedent  facts, 
and  both  providence  and  free  will  are  delusions.”  We 
therefore  make  the  demand,  and  think  it  a  reasonable 
one,  that  the  stupendous  claim  of  departures  in  the 
sequence  of  the  phenomenal  world,  or  miracles,  asserted 
upon  the  authority  either  of  individual  or  of  divine 
revelation,  should  be  established  upon  tests  correspond¬ 
ingly  clear  and  free  from  doubt  and  possible  fraud. 
How  far  sound  reason  may  justify  an  acceptance  of 
these  phenomena  and  the  testimony  upon  which  they 
are  presented  for  our  acceptance  as  demonstrated  and 
demonstrable  truths,  we  hope  may  be  made  manifest 
by  our  method  of  analysis  in  this  introduction. 

Truth  is  defined  by  Lewes  as  “  a  correspondence 
in  the  order  of  ideas  with  the  order  of  phenomena.” 
More  briefly  we  should  say  a  conformity  of  thoughts 
with  things,  a  conformity  of  that  which  is,  to  that 
which  has  been,  and  deductively  to  that  which  is 
to  be. 

To  know  how  forces  operated  in  the  past  and  will 
operate  in  the  future  we  must  observe  them  to-day. 

It  was  Descartes  who  first  grappled  determinedly 
with  this  great  question,  the  substitution  of  fixed  law 
for  the  “  caprice  of  deity,”  but  the  conception  ante¬ 
dated  him.  Finally  Auguste  Comte  grasped  the 
problem  in  its  length,  breadth,  and  height ;  he  saw 
momentous  practical  issues  to  humanity  involved  in  its 
proper  solution.  He  also  saw  and  comprehended  the 
dangers  of  the  evading  and  solvent  forces  of  the  meta¬ 
physical  methods  to  which  it  was  held  captive,  as  well 
as  the  constructive  value  of  a  positive  science ;  hence 
his  positive  philosophy  and  the  establishment  of  his 


8 


PREFACE. 


religion  of  humanity.  Mr.  Mill,  on  reviewing  Comte’s 
theory,1  says :  “  The  transition  is  steadily  proceeding 
from  the  metaphysical  to  the  positive  method  of  thought, 
which  is  destined  finally  to  prevail  by  the  recognition 
that  all  phenomena  without  exception  are  governed  by 
invariable  laws  into  which  no  violations  either  natural 
or  supernatural  intrude,”  and  hence  truth ,  the  avowed 
purpose  of  the  present  inquiry,  may  be  methodically 
recognized  in  its  compliance  with  the  laws  of  motion, 
gravity,  conservation  of  energy  and  the  canons  of  proof. 
Its  antitheses  are  error  and  falsehood. 

Now  while  the  foregoing  axiom  is  the  substratum 
upon  which  rests  all  demonstrable  science,  there  is 
nevertheless  much  irregularity  introduced  into  the 
method  of  approach  through  an  improper  definition  or 
comprehension  of  the  distinction  between  error  and 
falsehood ;  too  frequently  mistaking  the  one  for  the 
other.  Error  is  the  common  prelude  to  truth,  and  may 
be  the  product  of  a  formulated  problem,  falsehood  never; 
it  can  have  no  premise.  Error  courts  investigation;  it 
is  evanescent  and  fades  away  under  the  light  of  modern 
inductive  science.  Falsehood  seeks  exemption  from 
every  scientific  regime,  and  recoils  from  the  light  and 
scrutiny  of  investigation,  and,  in  default  of  conformity 
to  immutable  law,  postulates  its  own  canon,  and  sets 
up  a  claim  to  miraculous  interposition;  such  is  revela¬ 
tion.  But  error  being  formulated  accedes  to  the  dis¬ 
cipline  and  conditions  of  the  scientific  ritual  which  it 
assimilates  in  its  widening  and  progressive  experiences ; 
such  is  physical  science.  Nearly  all  the  great  truths 

1  Systeme  de  Politique  Positive ,  ou  Religion  deVhumanite:  par  Auguste 
Traite  de  Sociologie,  Instituant  la  Comte.  (Paris,  1851-54.) 


PREFA  CE. 


9 


of  science  stand  out  against  a  background  of  error; 
while  no  great  truth  is  rooted  in  falsehood. 

When  Darwin  sought  the  establishment  of  any  great 
truth  he  discarded  all  elements  except  those  founded 
in  the  order  of  nature  and  the  soundest  and  most 
incontestable  scientific  induction. 

For  the  establishment  of  new  truths,  as  distinguished 
from  the  perpetuation  of  old  falsehoods,  in  the  histori¬ 
cal  as  in  the  phenomenal  world,  the  scientific  method 
must  be  pursued  regardless  of  all  supernatural  agencies ; 
and  to  the  extent  that  we  increase  our  knowledge  or 
amplify  our  storehouse  of  experiences,  from  all  time 
past  and  present,  to  that  extent  shall  we  become  poten¬ 
tial  to  emancipate  ourselves  and  our  philosophy  from 
the  allegiance  of  all  invisible  and  unknown  powers  and 
representatives.  And  in  reviewing  past  experiences 
we  shall  discover  that  the  physical  and  the  known 
have  gradually  arrogated  the  realm  of  the  spiritual 
and  unknown.  Every  mysterious  and  unknown  phe¬ 
nomenon  explained  scientifically  and  brought  within 
the  field  of  the  known,  is  a  victory  for  truth,  a  result 
which  expels  the  mysterious  and  omnipotent  out  of 
just  so  much  of  the  universe  ;  for  just  so  certain  as 
light  and  truth  penetrate  the  hidden  recesses  of  phe¬ 
nomena,  the  lurking-places  of  the  unknown  and 
unknowable,  just  so  certain  God  retires,  and  the  con¬ 
summation  of  all  scientific  truth  will  be  the  “last  sad 
requiem  of  the  Gods.”  “The  omnipotence  of  God  and 
a  crucified  Saviour,”  says  Spinoza,  “  is  the  refuge  of 
ignorance,  and  it  is  magnified  in  its  mystery  as  a  fog 
magnifies  the  sun.”  “  The  potentiality  of  the  hand 
that  unnerved  Belshazzar  lies  in  the  fact  that  it  was 


2 


IO 


PREFACE . 


attached  to  no  body.”  “  Every  one  truth,”  says  the 
Duke  of  Argyle,  “  is  connected  with  every  other  truth 
in  the  universe ;  there  can  be  no  two  truths  with 
antagonistic  relations.”  Science  and  dogma  may  stip¬ 
ulate,  but  no  truth  will  ever  be  the  product  of  their 
united  efforts.  This  is  demonstrated  in  the  sad  failure 
attending  the  efforts  of  some  truly  devoted  men  who 
have  attempted  a  matrimonial  alliance  between  science 
and  revealed  religion,  the  folly  of  which  effort  can 
only  be  condoned  in  the  multitude  of  services  these 
excellent  men  have  rendered  humanity  in  other  de¬ 
partments.  I  speak  of  such  men  as  Mivart,  Bunsen, 
S.  Baring-Gould,  Muller,  etc.,  who,  with  all  their 
efforts  at  reconciliation,  have  succeeded  only  in  re¬ 
affirming  an  old  truism,  “  that  science  was  conceived 
in  antagonism  to  all  revealed  religion,”  and  that  in  the 
final  judgment  one  or  the  other  must  go  to  the  wall, 
unless  there  is  a  repeal  of  the  law  of  contradiction. 
There  is,  however,  a  set  of  intellectual  Grahamites 
whose  appetites  are  satisfied  with  the  husks  of  truth, 
and  who  entertain  but  narrowly  conceived  notions  of 
the  capacity  of  a  healthy  mental  organism ;  these  men 
with  great  parade  and  sound  of  trumpets  retail  their 
weak  decoctions  of  science  to  unaccustomed  ears,  who 
listen  and  applaud  their  bombastic  promises  of  enlight¬ 
enment,  and  have  not  the  sagacity  to  detect  the  fraud 
or  discover  the  barrenness  of  the  results. 

The  applause  received  by  Joseph  Cook  as  a  scientific 
lecturer  before  religious  audiences  stimulated  him  to 
higher  flights.  His  appearance  before  the  scientific 
world  was  not  unlike  that  of  the  street  showman  who 
had  been  so  successful  in  tricks  performed  with  a 


PREFACE. 


II 


monkey  that  he  was  encouraged  to  practice  them 
with  a  bear,  which  resulted  in  a  discontinuance  of  the 
business. 

A  great  scientist  has  said  that  “  all  error  is  truth 
gone  astray,”  but  I  should  rather  say  that  error  is 
undeveloped  truth,  such  as  the  old  explanation  of  the 
perturbations  in  the  orbit  of  the  planet  Uranus.  The 
relations  of  alchemy  to  chemistry,  astrology  to  astron¬ 
omy,  are  also  illustrations  of  this  great  truth,  while 
the  Buddhistic,  Mohammedan,  Roman,  and  Pagan  re¬ 
ligions  are  not  classed  as  errors  ;  they  are  false  religions, 
they  have  no  premise  in  their  high  claim  as  a  divine 
revelation.  It  was  formerly  the  method  in  our  investi¬ 
gations  after  truth  to  suspend  all  our  hypotheses  and 
platforms  from  the  sky,  but  Auguste  Comte  taught  us 
that  all  our  scaffoldings  for  a  perfect  and  invulnerable 
structure  must  in  the  future  be  firmly  planted  on  the 
earth,  or  in  experience.  The  completest  apprehension 
we  can  acquire  of  the  true  in  a  phenomenon  is  that 
based  upon  personal  experience  or  the  evidence  of  our 
senses  —  certainties  ;  the  next  is  that  achieved  by  dem¬ 
onstration,  next  by  positive  testimony  of  eye-witnesses, 
and  the  lowest  of  all  comprehension  of  the  true  in 
phenomena  is  that  derived  from  probabilities  or  accords 
and  discords.  That  which  we  see  is  truth  ;  that  which 
is  communicated  to  us  by  others  is  evidence,  testimony, 
and  may  or  may  not  be  true.  A  dogma  or  the  pro¬ 
scription  by  authority  does  not  necessarily  contain  any 
element  of  truth. 

In  order  that  a  historical  relation  be  recognized  as 
truth,  it  does  not  follow  that  it  must  be  in  harmony 
with  all  known  experience.  The  statements  of  a  known 


12 


PREFACE. 


respectable  historian  living  near  enough  to  the  scene 
and  time  of  the  events  he  narrates  to  guarantee  the 
probability  of  his  competent  information  upon  the  sub¬ 
ject,  is  entitled  to  our  confidence ;  even  his  opinions, 
persuasions,  common  beliefs,  and  reasonings  become 
legitimate  elements  of  history,  providing  he  nowhere 
transcends  the  sphere  of  known  facts  or  rational  prob¬ 
ability,  and  providing  also  that  his  statements  have  not 
been  transmitted  to  us  through  polluted  channels  by 
interested  and  designing  men.  All  such  statements, 
opinions,  persuasions,  and  beliefs  we  accept  upon  a 
standard  of  personal  conviction  growing  out  of  the 
harmony  or  combination  of  all  these  taken  together, 
and  which  experience  has  disciplined  the  mind  to 
approve  simultaneously  with  their  announcement. 

It  was  said  by  an  early  explorer  that  the  New  Zea¬ 
landers  were  intelligent,  brave,  but  cruel.  Another  has 
said  that  they  were  ignorant,  cowardly,  but  kind.  The 
mind  cannot  accept  both,  but  does  not  revolt  at  either 
of  these  enormously  conflicting  statements  ;  either  may 
be  true,  but,  as  ethnological  facts,  both  cannot.  One 
of  the  narrators  is  in  error,  and  we  set  about  collecting 
facts  and  drawing  our  own  conclusions,  when  we  en¬ 
counter  another  adventurer  who  says  that  the  New 
Zealanders  carry  their  heads  under  their  arms  detached 
from  their  bodies.  A  unanimous  verdict  is  at  once 
rendered  against  the  statement  of  the  last  writer,  be¬ 
cause  it  transgresses  well-known  laws  of  nature,  and 
antagonizes  all  experiential  truth.  It  has  no  physical 
relation  with  anything  of  which  we  have  experience, 
and  is  cut  off  by  an  insurmountable  barrier  from  all 
the  true  (to  us)  in  the  universe„ 


PREFACE. 


13 


Thus,  while  the  mind  readily  accepts  either  of  the 
first-named  conflicting  statements  without  testimony 
above  the  naked  recital,  it  instantly  and  firmly  rejects 
the  third.  And  it  would  be  only  folly  to  attempt  to 
convince  the  logically  constituted  mind  of  the  truth  of 
the  third  statement,  upon  the  same  quantity  or  the  like 
quality  of  proof  which  would  be  conclusive  under  the 
first  and  second ;  for  to  the  extent  that  a  statement 
implicates  unfamiliar  phenomena,  to  that  extent  must 
its  attestation  be  profuse  and  decisive,  unless  to  the 
mind  dwarfed  and  diseased  by  long  discipline  and 
training. 

A  philosopher  of  the  higher  consciousness  type  says 
(arguing  in  favor  of  miracles) :  “  My  father  died  before 
the  electric  telegraph  came  into  use,  and  my  grand¬ 
father  before  steam  was  applied  to  purposes  of  locomo¬ 
tion.  Had  the  one  been  told  that  it  was  possible  to 
communicate  with  England  in  forty  seconds,  the  other 
that  a  journey  between  New  York  and  Philadelphia 
could  be  accomplished  in  ninety  minutes,  they  each 
would  have  pronounced  their  informant  a  mendacious 
idiot.”  The  allegory  is  not  entirely  clear,  unless  to  show 
the  wisdom  of  the  ancestors  of  my  philosophical  friend. 
But  if  he  expects  me  to  believe  in  the  miraculous  events 
related  in  the  Life  of  Apollonius  because  my  father  and 
grandfather  in  their  wisdom  believed  in  them,  then  he 
is  a  mendacious  idiot ;  but  if  he  will  demonstrate  ex¬ 
perimentally  before  my  eyes  as  plainly  as  present  com¬ 
munication  with  England  that  it  can  be  done,  then  I  am 
a  mendacious  idiot  if  I  longer  doubt  it. 

Now,  if  we  discover  in  the  phenomena  which  have 
provoked  this  discussion  the  relation  of  events  which 


14 


PREFACE. 


transcend  the  customary  and  known  experiences  of  life, 
so  shall  we  expect  their  demonstration,  proof,  and  proba¬ 
bilities  correspondingly  to  transcend  in  unanimous  attes¬ 
tation  an  ordinary  historical  relation  attested  by  personal 
conviction.  For  nothing  can  be  plainer  than  that  the 
relation  of  an  extraordinary  event  arouses  doubt  above 
that  of  an  ordinary  one  ;  it  disturbs  the  mental  inertia, 
and  the  mind  is  set  in  motion  in  a  direction  antagoniz¬ 
ing  the  event,  to  meet  which  there  must  not  only  be 
proof  sufficient  to  verify  an  ordinary  historical  event, 
but  also  and  first  a  certain  amount  of  demonstrative 
force  must  be  expended  to  allay  the  opposition  and  to 
bring  the  mind  to  that  receptive  state  in  which  it  must 
be  to  receive  an  ordinary  account.  As  with  the  New 
Zealanders,  the  first  relation  comes  entirely  within  the 
sphere  of  probability  or  personal  experience,  for  some 
savages  are  cruel,  others  kind  ;  some  intelligent,  others 
ignorant ;  but  in  the  third  statement  the  story  is  sur¬ 
rounded  with  a  halo  of  improbabilities,  and  lies  entirely 
without  the  sphere  of  all  known  experience,  within 
which  every  event  must  be  brought  or  experience 
widened  before  it  can  become  accepted  truth. 

The  naked  statement  of  the  most  excellent  man  whom 
all  personal  experience  affirms  never  told  a  falsehood, 
will  certainly  not  avail  to  bring  conviction  unsupported ; 
for  while  we  have  no  experience  of  men  who  carry  their 
heads  under  their  arms,  we  have  an  abundant  experi¬ 
ence  that  some  of  the  best  men  will  lie,1  and  sometimes 


l  Saint  Augustine  (Aurelius  Au¬ 
gustinus),  the  most  illustrious  of  all 
the  Latin  fathers  of  the  Church,  was 
born  a  pagan  at  Tagasta  in  Nu- 


midia,  A.  d.  354.  He  has  left  more 
literature  than  any  man  of  his  day, 
and  which  has  had  more  influence 
as  evidence  in  proof  of  a  pure  spirit- 


PREFACE. 


15 


without  any  apparent  motive ;  and  what  one  man  has 
been  known  to  do  sometimes  without  any  apparent 
motive,  another  may  do  frequently  for  a  consideration, 
and  thus  the  falsehood  may  be  confirmed  by  a  second  and 
third,  until  it  becomes  epidemic  and  everybody  affirms 
it ;  for  upon  the  best  authority —  personal  experience  — 
we  know  that  the  belief  of  multitudes  is  contagious ; 
and  when  a  godly  narrative  becomes  too  occult  to  be 
accepted  upon  the  acclamations  of  the  multitude,  then 
it  either  appeals  to  the  supernatural  or  retires  beyond 
the  jurisdiction  of  experiential  science  for  ratification. 

No  one  probably  ever  comprehended  this  truth  with 
more  force  than  the  great  prophet  of  the  Latter-day 


ual  life  than  any  writings  aside  from 
the  New  Testament;  in  fact,  it 
ranks  next  to  the  gospel.  In  his 
youth  he  taught  grammar  and  rhet¬ 
oric  at  Carthage  and  Rome ;  he  was 
also  professor  of  rhetoric  and  phi¬ 
losophy  at  Milan.  Under  the 
preaching  of  Saint  Ambrose  in  368, 
Augustine  experienced  a  decided 
conversion.  He  was  shortly  or¬ 
dained  a  priest,  and  afterward  be¬ 
came  Bishop  of  Hippo.  He  first 
distinguished  himself  at  the  Council 
of  Carthage,  A.  D.  401,  for  his  un¬ 
ostentatious  piety,  eloquence,  and 
Christian  logic.  No  praise  was  too 
great  to  be  heaped  upon  this  holy 
man  by  his  brethren,  or  by  posterity. 
He  was  truly  a  representative  Chris¬ 
tian  of  all  ages.  In  his  published 
sermons  printed  at  Paris,  1679-1700, 
in  II  volumes  folio  (republished  in 
1836, 22  vols.),  we  find  in  his  thirty- 
third  sermon  addressed  to  a  conven¬ 


tion  of  reverend  brethren,  this  state¬ 
ment  :  “  I  did  myself,  while  Bishop 
of  Hippo  in  Africa,  preach  the  gos¬ 
pel  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus 
Christ  to  whole  nations  of  men  and 
women  that  had  no  heads  but  had 
eyes  in  their  bosoms  ;  and  in  coun¬ 
tries  further  still  in  the  interior,  I 
preached  to  a  whole  nation,  among 
whom  each  individual  had  but  one 
eye,  and  that  situate  in  the  middle 
of  the  forehead.” — Syntagma  of  the 
Evidences  of  the  Christian  Religion, 
etc.,  by  Rev.  R.  Taylor,  A.  B.,  p. 
52  ;  Tillemont,  Vie  de  Saint  Augus¬ 
tine  (in  Ecc.  Hist.),  1657;  Ponjou- 
lat,  Vita  Sancti  Augustini,  1646; 
Ecclesiastical  Memoirs ,  Rivius,  Pa- 
Iceoromaica,  1822,  p.  357;  Ancient 
Metaphysics,  vol.  iv.  p.  92  ;  cf.  His¬ 
tory  of  the  Conflict  between  Re¬ 
ligion  and  Science,  by  John  W. 
Draper,  M.  D.,  IX.  D.  (New  York, 
i875),  P-  5 7,  etc. 


1 6 


PREFACE . 


Saints,  Joseph  Smith.  He  took  every  precaution  to 
have  his  Book  of  Mormon  overwhelmingly  attested.  It 
was  certified  by  John  Cowdrey  and  eight  other  wit¬ 
nesses,  all  men  well  known,  and  some  of  them  persons 
who  up  to  this  time  were  noted  for  being  men  of  good 
character,  and  none  of  them  noted  for  untruthfulness. 
Their  attestation  is  in  the  following  words  : 

“  Be  it  known  unto  all  nations,  kindreds,  tongues, 
and  peoples  unto  whom  this  work  shall  come,  that  we, 
through  the  grace  of  God  the  Father  and  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  have  seen  the  plates  which  contain  the 
record ;  that  the  translation  is  correct,  and  was  attested 
by  an  angel  in  our  presence.”  This  statement  was 
subscribed  by  all  the  parties  (except  the  angel),  and 
sworn  to  before  a  justice  of  the  peace.  It  is  the  best 
attested  book  in  the  world. 

It  is  a  threadbare  argument,  and  it  appears  to  me  a 
meritless  one,  that  it  is  easier  to  believe  an  improbable 
story,  attested  by  respectable  men,  than  to  set  aside  as 
perjurers  those  who  have  attested  it;  but  this  is  not 
true,  for  if  the  Book  of  Mormon  were  sworn  to  by  the 
whole  convocation  of  Latter-day  Saints,  it  would  not 
change  its  status  one  iota  with  any  intelligent  man  or 
woman.  They  furthermore  urge  for  the  Book  of  Mor¬ 
mon  that  it  is  a  divine  revelation,  and  favored  of  God, 
upon  the  obdurate  fact  that  its  proselytes  reached  the 
unparalleled  number  of  350,000  in  less  than  fifty  years, 
four  times  as  many  as  Christianity  made  in  three  times 
the  number  of  years.  But  all  this  can’t  save  it,  for  it 
is,  notwithstanding  its  assumptions,  a  prodigious  fraud. 

The  great  problem,  however,  which  we  find  mature 
and  awaiting  deliverance  under  the  present  discussion, 


PREFACE. 


1 7 


is  :  What  is  the  status  and  relative  value  of  the  two 
records,  Matthew  and  Philostratus,  as  historical  men¬ 
tors  ?  Is  there  any  exclusive  privilege  which  we  are 
bound  to  accord  to  one  of  these  narratives  which  we 
are  compelled  to  withhold  from  the  other  ?  Shall  one 
of  them  be  privileged  to  challenge  the  historic  domain 
at  the  exclusion  of  the  other,  equally  well  authenticated  ? 
If  not,  and  this  is  a  free  field,  we  wish  to  be  heard. 
“  An  honest  inquiry  into  the  truth  of  the  gospel,”  Mr. 
Moody  tells  us,  “  is  not  only  every  man’s  privilege,  but 
every  man’s  duty ;  but,”  he  significantly  and  in  genuine 
orthodox  logic  adds,  “  should  we  conclude  that  it  is  not 
true  then  we  will  surely  be  damned.” 

With  this  sketch  of  our  method  of  treating  phenom¬ 
ena  called  miraculous,  we  shall  proceed  with  our  Life 
of  Apollonius  of  Tyana  in  answer  to  the  challenge, 
amplifying  with  notes,  as  we  may  deem  necessary  from 
time  to  time,  for  the  better  illustrating  our  sketch. 

A  prominent  feature  of  our  work  is  the  bibliographi¬ 
cal  references,  which  cover  a  very  important  and  hereto¬ 
fore  almost  unexplored  field  of  literature.  Nor  are  our 
numismatic  references  without  their  value. 


Flatbush,  L.  I.,  1886. 


D.  M.  T. 


u 


LIFE  OF 

APOLLONIUS  OF  TYANA. 

CT  us  roll  back  the  curtain  of  partisan  bitterness 
which  has  veiled  for  eighteen  centuries  the  real 
history  of  the  first  ten  decades  of  our  era,  and 
essay  to  construct  upon  the  remains  of  ruined  temples, 
works  of  art,  the  broken  and  defaced  monuments,  per¬ 
verted  and  interpolated  records- — the  only  unimpeach¬ 
able  heritage  we  possess  of  this  past  age — a  panorama 
of  the  geographic  and  historic  events  of  that  portion  of 
the  Roman  empire  lying  around  and  adjacent  to  the 
eastern  shores  of  the  Mediterranean  Sea.  The  success 
of  our  efforts,  of  course,  much  depends  upon  antecedent 
preparation  and  present  enthusiasm  for  our  work,  and 
we  hope  the  reader  will  observe  a  punctilious  conser¬ 
vatism  as  we  lay  in  the  background  of  neutral  tints, 
adjustable  to  any  phase,  which  the  development  of  new 
facts  may  justify  us  in  tracing  upon  the  surface  of  our 


19 


20 


APOLLONIUS 


ideal  panorama.1  Of  all  the  events  of  this  land  and  this 
age  about  to  engage  our  attention,  the  most  memorable 
is,  that  it  witnessed  the  last  of  a  series  of  prodigies  ;  the 
end  of  a  long  line  of  incarnations  and  avatars  ;  the 
closing  out  of  a  stock  in  remainders  of  miracles  and  of 
divinely  appointed  and  commissioned  personages,  which 
have  been  worked  into  the  woof  and  warp  of  the  written 
and  traditionary  history  of  man  from  the  earliest  ages ; 
all  of  which,  from  the  times  most  prehistoric,  present 
about  the  same  measure  of  incompleteness  in  detail,  and 
possess  about  the  same  amount  of  intrinsic  merit,  and 
offer  analogous  claims  upon  our  credulity  for  recogni¬ 
tion.  We  do  not  mean  to  say  that  there  is  anything 
startling  or  marvelous  in  the  mere  survival,  perpetuation 
of  these  stories  of  god  incarnations  ;  they  began  with  the 
earliest  ages  of  our  race,  and  constituted  the  only  liter¬ 
ature  of  primitive  man,  and  come  to  us  encumbered 
with  all  the  peculiar  superstitions  of  the  age  which 
marked  their  birth  or  transfiguration.  But  on  the 
closest  scrutiny  of  these  marvelous  relations  we  find  no 
evidence  of  growth ;  we  look  for  the  superimposed  layers 
of  succeeding  epochs  of  culture,  the  faithful  guide-posts 
of  the  scientists,  in  vain ;  they  are  without  the  sphere 

1  “  The  classic  scholar  whose  stud-  superciliously  affect  to  despise.” — 
ies  have  hardly  exceeded  the  limits  Alexander  Wilder,  M.  D.,  Intro- 
pr escribed  in  the  curriculum  of  the  duction  to  Ancient  Symbol  Worship. 
universities,  and  the  biblical  scholar  With  such,  and  especially  another 
whose  explorations  of  the  Hebrew  class  who  have  invested  themselves 
scriptures  have  not  led  him  beyond  by  the  severest  mental  discipline 
the  field  of  exegesis  in  theological  with  an  integument  of  dogma  im- 
pursuit,  may  recognize  a  vague  and  pervious  to  all  logical  methods,  I 
misty  chaos  of  mythologies  (in  these  anticipate  but  indifferent  results, 
relations)  which  not  accurately  beyond  the  severest  condemnation 
understanding  he  will  (probably)  for  my  presumption. 


OF  TYANA. 


21 


J 


of  all  past  and  present  experience,  and  defy  scientific 
demonstration.  The  last  age  of  miracle  was  no  more 
significant  for  the  quality  of  miracle  than  the  first.  They 
are  the  unchanging  esto  perpetua  annuity  of  the  faithful 
through  all  succeeding  ages  in  all  countries. 

Leaving  therefore  the  unworthy  testimony  of  miracle 
with  our  introductory  chapter  we  shall  proceed  with 
our  story.1 


1  From  the  time  that  disputes 
began  concerning  the  Christian 
religion,  Christians  have  charged 
Philostratus  with  having  appropri¬ 
ated  the  events  and  miracles  con¬ 
tained  in  Matthew’s  gospel  to  adorn 
his  life  of  Apollonius  of  Tyana,  and 
the  pagans  have  made  counter 
charges  of  plagiarism  against  the 
writer  of  this  gospel.  Cf  John 
Henry  Newman’s  Life  of  Apollonius 
of  Tyana ,  vol.  i.  ( History  of  the 
Chnstian  Church  ),  p.  345  ;  see,  also, 
Mosheim’s  Ecclesiastical  History , 
etc.,  2  vols.  (Blackie  &  Son,  1839), 
vol.  i.  p.  90,  b.  2,  c.  xvii.  Upon  the 
earlier  accounts  of  Apollonius  these 
charges  have  been  held  to  be  of 
sufficient  importance  to  meet  with 
efforts  of  refutation  from  eminent 
Christians ;  even  as  late  as  our  day 
Rev.  Albert  Reville  did  not  think  it 
beneath  his  dignity,  nor  his  great 
learning,  to  attempt  in  1866  a  refu¬ 
tation  of  “  this  great  and  monstrous 
infidel  slander.”  He  attempted  to 
show  in  a  little  book  bearing  the 
title  of  Apollonius  the  Pagan  Christ 
of  the  Third  Century  (meaning  the 
first  century),  that  Philostratus  had 
borrowed  his  leading  facts  from  the 


Gospel  of  Matthew.  The  transla¬ 
tion  of  Philostratus  by  Rev.  Edward 
Berwick  was  with  the  same  avowed 
intent.  Both  of  these  excellent  au¬ 
thors,  we  regret  to  say,  have  very 
much  contracted  the  field  of  their 
usefulness  by  their  strong  partisan¬ 
ship.  I  apprehend  that  the  Gospel 
of  Matthew  had  but  one  grand  cen¬ 
tral  idea ;  and  that  to  give  the 
events  in  the  real  life  of  one  Jesus 
of  Nazareth;  this  I  believe  is  ac¬ 
cepted  from  Justin  Martyr  to  Con¬ 
stantine  Tischendorf,  although  some 
of  the  more  timid  and  witless  of  the 
modern  theological  savants,  as  if  to 
ward  off  an  impending  blow  aimed 
at  the  real  man,  now  declare  that 
the  physical  life  of  Jesus  is  as  im¬ 
material  to  vital  Christianity  as  the 
physical  life  of  Mahomet.  Tis¬ 
chendorf,  however,  says  :  “  That 

Christianity  does  not  in  any  sense 
rest  upon  the  teachings  of  Christ, 
but  that  it  rests  upon  his  person 
only,  and  if  we  are  in  error  concern¬ 
ing  the  miraculous  conception  and 
physical  nature  of  Jesus,  then  is  the 
church  a  deception  and  a  fraud.” 
He  further  says :  “  That  whatever 
the  early  ages  of  the  church  report 


22 


APOLLONIUS 


“So  extremely  slight,”  says  Charles  Lesley,  “is  the 
authority  upon  which  the  biography  of  Apollonius  of 
Tyana,  the  stoic,  is  fabricated,  that  many  learned  men 


to  us  concerning  the  person  of 
Jesus  from  pretended  independent 
sources,  all  is  either  derived  from 
the  gospel  or  is  made  up  of  a  few 
insignificant  details  of  no  historic 
value  in  themselves.  And  that 
Christianity  had  not  nor  has  it  any 
other  radiating  or  central  point, 
everything  else  is  subservient  to 
the  dogma  of  the  real  historic  man, 
and  if  this  is  a  fallacy  then  does  the 
whole  scheme  of  redemption  fall 
like  the  provincial  towns  of  a  con¬ 
quered  empire.” — When  were  the 
Gospels  Written?  An  Argument,  by 
Constantine  Tischendorf,  etc.  (Lon¬ 
don),  p.  40. 

“  The  prevalent  opinion  amongst 
the  early  Christian  converts,”  says 
Mosheim,  “  was  that  Christ  existed 
in  appearance  only,  and  not  in  real¬ 
ity,  and  that  his  body  was  a  mere 
phantom.  The  book  of  the  Acts  of 
Peter,  John,  Thomas,  and  Paul 
speak  of  Christ  as  a  phantom,  and 
such  was  the  idea  of  the  followers 
of  Corinthus,  of  the  Nicolaitans  who 
are  denounced  in  the  Apocalypse 
of  the  Docetse  of  Cordon,  Marcion, 
Lucian,  Apelles,  and  Faustus.” 

And  there  can  be  no  doubt  of  the 
truth  of  what  Tischendorf  here  says: 
“  Author  after  author,  volume  after 
volume,  of  the  life  of  Christ  may 
appear  until  the  archives  of  the 
universe  are  filled,  and  yet  all  we 
have  of  the  life  of  Jesus  is  to  be 


found  in  Matthew’s  gospel.  Not 
a  single  person  specially  associated 
with  Jesus  impinges  history.” — 
What  is  Christianity?  etc.,  by 
Thomas  L.  Strange  (London,  1880), 
p.  38. 

“Many,”  says  Mosheim,  “have 
undertaken  to  write  a  history  of 
the  Apostles  —  a  history  of  fables, 
doubts,  and  difficulties.” 

Henry  More,  D.  D.  (1660),  says 
in  his  work,  entitled  An  Explanation 
of  the  Grand  Mystery  of  Godliness , 
or  a  True  and  Faithful  Representa¬ 
tion  of  the  Everlasting  Gospel  of  Our 
Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ ,  the 
Only  Begotten  Son  of  God ,  etc.,  etc. 
(London,  1660),  at  p.  124: 

“We  have  made  a  parallel  of  the 
miracles  and  prophecies  of  Christ 
and  Apollonius,  and  have  spent  our 
judgment  upon  them;  the  truth  of 
which  censure,  that  it  may  the  bet¬ 
ter  appear  to  all,  we  shall  briefly 
compare  their  temper  or  frame  of 
spirit,  which  I  confess  is  as  brave 
in  Apollonius  as  the  animal  life  will 
reach  unto.  But  the  animal  life  falls 
short  of  the  saving  knowledge  of 
God  and  is  but  that  which  in  a  man¬ 
ner  is  common  to  beasts,  devils,  and 
man.  This,  therefore,  we  will  ac¬ 
knowledge  to  be  in  Apollonius  a 
general  sense  of  political  justice,  a 
severe  profession  of  temperance,  a 
great  affection  for  humanity,  and  an 
ardent  love  of  knowledge,  especially 


OF  TYANA . 


23 


have  doubted  whether  there  ever  was  such  a  man.”1 
Lesley,  however,  wrote  with  strong  prejudices,  and 
based  his  conclusions  upon  a  very  slender  tissue  of  fact. 
Lucian  and  Apuleius  speak  of  Apollonius  as  of  one 
with  whom  they  were  familiar;  and  Ammianus  Mar- 
cellinus,  a  pagan  historian  of  Antioch,  also  mentions 


of  things  to  come.  But  how  far 
short  does  he  fall  in  all  his  virtues 
of  the  truly  heavenly  and  divine ! 
His  life  was  spent  in  industriously 
trotting  from  one  nation  of  the 
world  to  another  to  gather  honor 
and  applause  to  himself  by  correct¬ 
ing  the  customs  of  the  heathen  and 
renewing  their  fallen  rites  and  play¬ 
ing  the  uncontrollable  reformer 
whenever  he  pleased.  He  was  ever 
‘  haile  fellow  well  met  ’  with  the 
highest  kings  and  emperors,  they 
being  ever  taken  with  great  admira¬ 
tion  of  hi§  wisdom. 

“  It  is  most  evident  that  the  nat¬ 
ural  sense  of  honor  and  gallantry 
was  the  wing  and  spirit  which  made 
Apollonius  such  a  great  reputation 
in  his  time,  and  that  he  being  of  a 
lofty  and  generous  nature,  apt  to 
reach  out  at  high  things,  the  king¬ 
dom  of  darkness  hooked  him  in  to 
make  an  instrument  of  him  for  their 
own  turn,  and  so  to  dress  up  pagan¬ 
ism  in  the  best  attire  they  could  to 
make  it  if  it  were  possible  to  vie 
with  Christianity.” 

I  know  of  no  one  except  some 
jealous  Christians  who  ever  thought 
of  making  a  comparison  of  Apol¬ 
lonius  to  Jesus,  and  all  the  gascon¬ 
ade  about  the  efforts  made  either  by 
Apollonius  or  his  biographers  to 


equal  him  to  Jesus  is  the  merest 
bosh.  Neither  Apollonius  nor  Philo- 
stratus  ever  heard  of  Jesus,  nor  did 
they  ever  hear  of  any  celebrities 
who  are  said  to  have  been  associ¬ 
ated  with  him,  nor  had  they  ever 
heard  of  the  religion  which  he  is 
said  to  have  established  on  earth. 
And  how  could  they  ape  institu¬ 
tions  of  which  they  had  no  knowl¬ 
edge  ? 

John  Henry  Newman,  in  his  Life 
of  Apollonius  of  Tyana,  having  all 
the  above  facts  before  him,  has 
made  an  exhibition  of  littleness 
hardly  to  have  been  expected  from 
a  man  of  his  reputation.  He  says : 
“  The  reputation  of  Apollonius  has 
been  raised  far  above  his  personal 
merits,  by  efforts  to  bring  him 
forward  as  the  rival  of  the  author 
of  our  religion.  His  life  was  writ¬ 
ten  with  this  object  about  a  century 
after  his  death.”  Statements  of  this 
character  made  by  any  other  man 
would  be  characterized  as  false¬ 
hoods  ;  that  is,  statements  made  for 
the  purpose  of  deceiving.  Cf  John 
Henry  Newman’s  Life  of  Apollonius 
of  Tyana  ( History  of  the  Christian 
Church ),  p.  345. 

1  We  believe  that  Charles  Lesley 
is  the  only  learned  man  who  ever 
intimated  such  a  thing. 


24 


APOLLONIUS 


him.  John  Henry  Newman,  D.  D.,  says  of  Apol¬ 
lonius:  “Yet,  after  all  allowances,  there  remains  enough 
to  show  that,  however  fabulous  the  details  of  his 
history  may  be,  there  was  something  extraordinary 
in  his  character ;  some  foundation  there  must  have 
been  for  statements  which  his  eulogists  were  able  to 
maintain  in  the  face  of  those  who  would  have  spoken 
out  had  they  been  entirely  novel.”  “  He  was  a  phi¬ 
losopher,”  says  Voltaire,  “  whom  history  has  not  re¬ 
proached  with  one  equivocal  action,  nor  any  of  those 
weaknesses  of  which  Socrates  himself  was  accused.”  He 
traveled  among  the  Magi  and  the  Brachmans,  and  was 
everywhere  the  more  honored,  on  account  of  his  mod¬ 
esty  and  virtue  ;  giving  always  wise  and  prudent 
counsels,  and  rarely  disputing  with  any  one.  The 
prayer  which  he  was  accustomed  to  offer  up  to  the 
gods  is  admirable :  “  Oh,  ye  immortal  gods,  grant  us 
whatever  you  shall  judge  fit  and  proper  to  bestow,  and 
of  which  we  may  not  be  undeserving.”  He  was  by  no 
means  an  enthusiast  himself,  but  his  disciples  were  so. 
The  Tyanaeans  have  ranked  him  among  the  demi¬ 
gods  ;  and  the  Roman  emperors  approved  his  apo¬ 
theosis.  But,  in  the  course  of  time,  the  deification  of 
Apollonius  shared  the  same  fate  as  that  decreed  to  the 
Roman  emperors ;  and  his  chapel  became  as  deserted 
as  that  which  the  Athenians  erected  in  honor  of 
Socrates.1 

As  late  as  the  fifth  century  we  find  one  Volusian,  a 
pro-consul  of  Africa,  descended  from  an  old  Roman 

1  The  Philosophy  of  History ;  Bazen  (Voltaire),  translated  by 
or,  a  Philosophical  and  Historical  H.  W.  Gaudell  (London,  1829), 
Dissertation,  etc.,  etc.,  by  L’Abbe  p.  193. 


OF  TYANA . 


25 


family,  still  worshiping  Apollonius  of  Tyana  as  a 
supernatural  being.1  Eusebius  styles  him  a  wise  man, 
and  seems  to  admit  the  correctness  of  Philostratus, 
except  the  miraculous  part  of  the  narrative.  Lactan- 
tius  does  not  deny  that  a  statue  was  erected  to  him  at 
Ephesus.  Sidonius  Apollinaris,  who  even  wrote  his  * 
life,  speaks  of  him  as  the  admiration  of  the  countries 
he  traversed,  and  the  favorite  of  monarchs.  One  of  his 
works  was  deposited  in  the  palace  of  Antioch  by 
Hadrian.2  Statues  were  erected  to  him  in  the  temple 
by  Caracalla,  Alexander  Severus,  and  Aurelianus.3  It 
is  claimed  for  Apollonius  by  his  followers  that  he  was 
the  son  of  the  god  Proteus,4  a  claim,  we  apprehend, 
with  a  very  frail  foundation,  and  repudiated  by  him. 
From  the  best  evidence  in  our  possession  he  was 
born  in  the  year  one  of  our  era,5  during  the  reign 
of  Caesar  Augustus,  and  near  the  close  of  the  great 
Augustan  period,  which  rose  in  such  glory  and  splen¬ 
dor  and  sank  in  darkness  and  gloom.  It  occurred  in 
the  same  year  that  the  chief  minister  of  Augustus, 
the  companion  and  adviser  of  Octavius, —  Maecenas, — 
died;6  and  was  the  same  year  that  Archelaus,  son  of 


1  Pagan  Christ  (Reville),  p.  56. 

2  A  coin  of  Hadrian’s  time  is  ex¬ 
tant,  with  the  inscription,  Toava 
lepa  aobXoq  abiovofioq. 

3  The  Life  of  Apollonius  of  Tyana, 
with  a  comparison  between  the  Mir¬ 
acles  of  the  Scriptures ,  etc.,  etc.,  by- 
John  Henry  Newman,  D.  D.  ( His¬ 

tory  of  Christian  Church ),  vol.  i. 
p.  348 ;  also,  Eusebius  Volaiscus 

Lampsidius,  etc.,  as  quoted  by 

Bayle. 


4  Apollonius  De  Tyane.  Sa  Vie, 
Ses  Voyages,  Ses  Prodiges,  etc. 
(Paris,  Chassang),  p.  5,  et  seq. 

5  In  the  year  of  Rome  750,  or  of 
the  Christian  era  1. — J.  H.  New¬ 
man. 

6  Cf.  Life  of  Mcecenas,  with  crit¬ 
ical  notes ,  History ,  etc.,  by  Ralph 
Schomberg,  M.  D.  (London,  1776); 
also,  Suetonius  (Bohn,  1855),  p. 
182 ;  Richter,  Vie  de  Mecinas  ( 1 746) ; 
Merbonius  de  C.  C.  Mcecenatis  Vita 


4 


2  6 


APOLLONIUS 


Herod  the  Great,  was  recognized  by  Caesar  Augustus 
as  king  of  Judea.1  It  is  said  that  Apollonius -was  of 
divine  parentage,  and  that  messengers  of  Apollo  sang 
at  his  birth.2  Proteus,  his  reputed  father,  was  a  Greek 
god  of  philosophy,  son  of  Neptune,  and  king  of  Egypt. 
He  is  represented  as  a  prophetic  old  man,  who  could 
tell  future  events.3  The  life  of  Apollonius  extended 
over  ten  decades.  He  died  in  the  year  98  of  our  era. 
This  is  quite  a  remarkable  age,  but  not  very  extraordi¬ 
nary  ;  for  in  Vespasian’s  time  they  counted  within  the 
circuit  of  a  small  district  fifty-four  men  of  the  age 
of  a  hundred ;  forty  between  one  hundred  and  ten 
and  one  hundred  and  forty ;  and  two  past  one  hundred 
and  fifty.4 


( 1 653) ;  Mcecenas Literatorum Patro- 
nus,  Bellman’s  Upsal  (1705);  Taci¬ 
tus,  Annales,  lib.  1,  iii.  iv. ;  Dion 
Cassius,  History  of  Rome. 

1 J osephus,  A ntiquities ,  J udea,  lib. 
17,  c.  xv.  ;  History  Israelites  and 
Judeans ,  Philosophical  and  Critical 
(Trubner,  London,  1879),  vol.  ii.  p. 
391 ;  Irenseus,  Adv.  Ilaer.  vol.  i. 
p.  26;  Stathis ,  lib.  5,  ii.  verses 
138-9;  Inman ,  p.  304,  etc. 

“  Apollonius  of  Tyana,”  says 
Gibbon,  “  was  born  about  the  same 
time  as  Jesus  Christ.  His  life  (the 
former)  is  related  in  so  fabulous  a 
manner  by  his  fanatic  disciples  that 
we  are  at  a  loss  to  discover  whether 
he  was  a  sage  or  impostor.” 

2  Dissertations  on  the  Mysteries 
of  the  Cabiri ,  or  the  Greek  Gods  of 
Phoenicia ,  Samothrace ,  Egypt ,  Troas, 
Greece ,  Italy ,  and  Crete ,  by  George 
Stanley  Faber,  2  vols.  (1803),  vol.  ii. 
p.  234: 


“  Never  had  been  Rome  more 
flourishing  than  during  the  present 
reign  of  Augustus,  who  had  been 
its  sole  ruler  for  thirty  years  under 
the  title  of  Son  of  God.  The  other 
Caesars  proclaimed  themselves  liv¬ 
ing  gods.  Augustus  had  restored 
order  in  Italy,  and  added  Egypt, 
Rhaetia,  Noricum,  and  Pannonia  to 
his  empire.  He  had  been  appointed 
imperator  for  the  fourth  term  of  ten 
years  by  the  people.  In  the  refor¬ 
mation  of  religion  during  the  reign 
of  Augustus,  Apollo  Palatinus  was 
installed  as  next  to  Jupiter  Capitoli- 
nus,  the  tutelary  deity  of  Rome.” 

3  Ammianus  Marcellinus  ranks 
Apollonius  among  the  most  emi¬ 
nent  men  who  had  prophesied  by 
supernatural  aid  of  a  daemon  or 
genius,  as  Socrates  or  Numa. 

4  Idein  iiber  de  Politik  den  Ver- 
keht  tend  den  Handel  vomehensten 
Volker  der  Allen  Welt ,  von  A.  L. 


OF  TYANA . 


2; 


Valerius  Maximus  says  that  Terentia,  widow  of  Cic¬ 
ero,  attained  the  age  of  one  hundred  and  three.  Pliny 
says  she  was  one  hundred  and  seventeen  when  she  died. 
On  the  authority  of  Pritchard,  Whitehead,  Bailey,  and 
others,  Apollonius  was  one  hundred  and  thirty  when 
he  died :  bearing  in  mind,  in  the  meantime,  however, 
that  it  has  been  maintained  with  great  resolution  and 
bitterness  that  no  such  person  as  Apollonius  of  Tyana 
had  ever  lived,  and  that  the  pretended  span  of  his  life 
and  history  were  entirely  the  product  of  the  brain  of 


Philostratus.1 

Heeren,  2  vols.  (Gottingen,  1796), 
vol.  ii.  p.  184 ;  cf.  Histoire  de  V Econ¬ 
omic  Politique  en  Europe  depuis  les 
Anciens  jusqu'a  nos  jours ,  par 
Blanque  (Paris,  1842). 

1  We  believe  this  sketch  of  Apol¬ 
lonius,  with  all  the  labor  it  repre¬ 
sents  to  us,  if  not  of  its  own  intrinsic 
merits  as  a  classic,  will  have  signifi¬ 
cance  in  determining  the  standard 
value  of  other  and  contemporaneous 
characters  with  which  it  stands  in 
contrast.  The  usual  methods  of 
saying  things  and  declaring  them 
proven,  pervades  nearly  all  the  liter¬ 
ature  prepared,  admittedly,  to  write 
down  Apollonius.  But  I  know  of 
no  vulnerable  point  of  attack  upon 
Philostratus’s  Life  of  Apollonius , 
which  will  not,  with  vastly  aug¬ 
mented  force,  under  the  same  meth¬ 
ods  of  reasoning,  recoil  upon  Mat¬ 
thew’s  Gospel  of  the  Life  of  Jesus. 
But  they  declare  that  Philostratus 
wrote  up  a  character  in  imitation 
of  Christ,  and  in  opposition  to  the 
Christian  religion,  when  the  best  evi¬ 
dence  in  the  world  exists  (his  entire 


silence)  that  he  had  never  heard  of 
Christ  or  Christians.  However,  if 
Philostratus  did  create  a  character  in 
imitation  of  Christ,  how  much  more 
worthy  of  our  imitation  in  practice 
and  precept  is  the  counterfeit ! 

It  is  equally  remarkable  that, 
although  Plutarch’s  miscellaneous 
writings  make  mention  or  allude 
with  unerring  certainty  to  nearly 
every  ethical  or  theurgic  opinion  of 
his  time  (A.  D.  50  to  120  A.  D.),  he 
is  absolutely  silent  on  the  subject  of 
Christianity.  And  this  is  more  sin¬ 
gular  because  the  provinces  of  Bi- 
thynia  and  Pontus,  only  a  few  days’ 
journey  from  Bceotia,were,ifwemay 
believe  Christian  writers,  already 
swarming  with  the  proselytes  of 
Christianity.  And  on  like  authority 
Athens,  Corinth,  Ephesus,  and 
Philippi  were  centers  of  great  Chris¬ 
tian  revivals.  He  ought  to  have  re¬ 
membered  Nero’s  persecution  of  the 
Christians  ;  yet  while  he  speaks  of 
every  other  persecution,  he  is  per¬ 
sistently  silent  upon  the  great  event 
of  the  day. 


28 


APOLLON/C/S 


At  the  period  of  the  birth  of  Apollonius,  A.  D.  i  (or 
about),  the  Roman  empire  was  in  the  zenith  of  its 
power  and  glory.1  The  geography  of  the  earth  known 
to  the  Romans  at  this  period  was  a  slight  knowledge 
of  Britain,  a  small  portion  of  Germany,  Gallia  (France), 
Hispania  (Spain),  a  very  limited  knowledge  of  the 
countries  of  Africa  immediately  bordering  on  the  Med¬ 
iterranean,  of  Egypt  as  far  as  Ethiopia  on  the  Nile, 
Italy,  Greece,  Asia  Minor,  Syria,  and  Persia ;  India  and 
China  had  a  traditionary  existence  only.  And  of  these 
countries  Apollonius  in  his  life-time  visited  all  except 
Britain,  Germany,  and  China.  As  a  traveler  he  was 
excelled  by  no  man  anterior  to  his  time,  and  it  was 
probably  his  foreign  itineraries  which  accounted  for  his 
breadth  of  thought  and  the  liberality  of  his  political  and 
religious  creed.  He  had,  for  the  period  in  which  he 
lived,  developed  a  marvelous  knowledge  of  human 
affairs,  through  his  great  and  varied  experiences  at 
home  and  abroad,  which  had  given  rise  to  the  belief 
with  many  that  he  possessed  miraculous  powers.2 

Flavius  Philostratus,  the  biographer  of  Apollonius  of 
Tyana,  or  author  of  the  Gospel  of  Philostratus,3  the  son 
of  Verrus,  was  born  at  Lemnos,  A.  D.  172. 4  He  was 
the  Talleyrand  of  the  second  century ;  he  studied  rhet- 

1  Eutropius’s  Abridgment  of  Ro-  3  Reville’s  Pagan  Christ ,  etc., 
man  History ,  translated  by  Wil-  pp.  4-75 • 

son,  b.  7,  c.  ix.  (Bohn,  London,  4  Clinton,  Fasti  Romani,  vol.  i.  p. 
1853 ).  257,  supposes  the  birth  of  Philostra- 

2  Cf.  Caji  Suetonii  Tranquilli  tus  occurred  a.  d.  182.  Dr.  Smith’s 

Opera  et  In  ilia  Commentarius ;  Classical  Dictionary  makes  it  A.  D. 

Samuelis  Pitisci  Quo  Antiquitates  172.  Cf.  Blount,  Berwick,  Tillemont, 
Romance ,  etc.,  etc.  (1590),  vol.  i.  and  others.  See  also  Encyclopedia 
p.  226.  Britannica ,  article,  Philostratus. 


OF  TYANA. 


29 


oric  at  Athens ;  afterward  resided  at  Rome ;  he  was  a 
man  of  high  literary  attainments,  so  say  his  contempo¬ 
raries  ;  he  was  a  sophist,  and  wrote  the  Lives  of  the 
Sophists,  Short  Biographies  of  Fifty-nine  Rhetoricians 
and  Philosophers,  Heroica,  Discourses  on  Seventy 
Heroes  of  Homer,  Traite  sur  la  Gymnastique,1  leones, 
Comments  on  Certain  Paintings  in  the  Gallery  which 
was  at  Naples,2  a  Collection  of  Letters,  seventy-three 
in  number,3  and  also  an  exhaustive  treatise  on  the 
Philosophy  and  Religion  of  his  day.4  And  more  es¬ 
pecially  pertinent  to  this  inquiry  he  compiled  the  His¬ 
tory  and  Biography  of  Apollonius  of  Tyana.5  He  was 


1  Paris,  1858. 

2  The  writer  is  introduced  as  liv¬ 
ing  in  a  villa  near  Naples,  which  con¬ 
tains  a  choice  collection  of  paintings. 
To  please  the  son  of  his  host  and  his 
young  companions,  he  undertakes  to 
describe  and  explain  the  pictures, 
which  are  sixty-four  in  all.  The 
descriptions  are  exceedingly  good, 
and  reveal  the  skillful  word-painter, 
no  less  than  the  accomplished  con¬ 
noisseur  of  art. — R.  Garnett,  LL.D., 
Enc.  Brit.,  article,  Philostratus ; 
cf  Fredericks,  Die  Philostratus 
chen  Bilder  ( 1 860) ;  Brunn,  Die  Phi- 
lostratischen,  Gernalde  (1861);  A. 
Bougot,  Une  galerie  antique  (1881); 
E.  Bertrand,  Une  Critique  d  'art 
dans  V  anti  quite  Philostrate  et  son 
ecole  (1882). 

3  Lipsise,  1842. 

4  The  entire  works  of  Philostratus, 
by  Morel  (Paris,  1608);  the  same, 
byOlearius  (Leipsic,i709);  same, by 
Kayser  (1844);  Eunape ,  par  Bois- 


sonade  ;  Declamations  of  Himerus, 
par  Dubner  (Paris),  1  vol.  For  the 
writings  of  Philostratus,  cf.  Vossius, 
Jonsius,  Meursius,  Fabricus. 

5  A  copy  of  this  work  in  Greek 
may  be  found  in  the  Library  of  Con¬ 
gress.  Philostratus  informs  us  that 
the  materials  for  his  work  were  ob¬ 
tained  from  different  cities  wherein 
Apollonius  was  held  in  high  esteem ; 
also  from  temples  whose  long-dis¬ 
used  rites  he  restored,  from  tradi¬ 
tions,  and  from  the  epistles  of 
Apollonius  addressed  to  kings  and 
sophists.  Of  these  letters,  the  Em¬ 
peror  Adrian  had  made  a  collection, 
which  he  deposited  in  his  palace  at 
Antium.  Caracalla  honored  Apol¬ 
lonius,  and  dedicated  a  temple  to 
him  as  a  hero ;  and  he  was  in  such 
estimation  with  Alexander  Severus, 
that  he  had  his  statue  in  his  private 
closet  (Tillemont).  Philostratus  was 
also  assisted  in  his  work  by  the  use 
of  Apollonius’s  work  on  Astrology 


30 


APOLLONIUS 


one  of  the  most  prolific  writers  of  his  time.  Various 
charges  have  been  preferred  against  Philostratus,  such 
as  being  visionary,  superstitious,  illiterate,  or  obscure. 
These  things  were  intended  to  injure  his  standing  as  a 
historian,  and  have  probably  but  little  foundation  in 
truth.1  The  charge  of  being  superstitious  may  not 
have  been  entirely  unjustifiable  ;  for  the  credit  which  he 
seems  to  give  to  the  account  of  ridiculous  miracles 
attributed  to  Apollonius  might  hold  him  guilty  on  this 
count.  And  again  he  says  :  “  I  have  seen  the  will  of 
Apollonius,  which  conclusively  proves  him  to  be  an 
inspired  man.”  This  is  very  inconclusive,  indeed,  to  all 
who  have  not  seen  the  will.2  As  to  the  other  charges 
against  Philostratus,  they  are  wholly  untrue,  and  are 
amply  refuted  in  the  pages  of  general  history  without 
recourse  to  special  annals.  He  also  made  a  permanent 
impression  upon  the  age  and  literature  of  his  time,3  and 


and  Sacrifice;  also,  that  he  made 
use  of  the  book  of  Maximus  the 
JEgsean,  the  biography  written  by 
Damis  the  Assyrian ;  and  he  was 
fortunate  enough,  he  informs  us,  to 
meet  with  the  book  written  by 
Maeragenes. 

1  Bibliotheque  Universe  lie,  Auteurs 
Ecclesiasiiques,  par  Louis  Ellers 
Dupin  (Paris,  1686-1704),  58  vols. 

2  There  is  no  doubt  but  that  the 
admirers  of  Apollonius  have  en¬ 
deavored  to  crown  him  with  the 
attributes  of  divinity.  Meanwhile, 
the  statistics  of  personal  history 
which  would  give  the  lie  to  such 
assumption  have  been  destroyed; 
dates,  stubborn  barriers  in  the  way 


of  apotheosis,  have  been  lost ;  regis¬ 
ters  of  births  there  are,  unfortu¬ 
nately,  none ;  thus,  through  the 
sophistry  of  designing  men,  the 
inference  to  the  minds  of  the  igno¬ 
rant  and  credulous  is,  that  he  had 
no  mortal  father,  but  sprang  from 
the  soil,  or  rose  from  the  sea,  or 
came  down  from  heaven,  or  was  the 
joint  offspring  of  God  and  a  human 
maiden.  The  circumstances  attend¬ 
ing  the  death  long  forgotten,  the 
partisan  story  of  heavenly  descent 
and  ascension,  could  not  be  refuted, 
and  the  territory  which  truth  could 
not  occupy,  superstition  and  fraud 
at  once  claimed. 

3  Encyclopedia  Britannica. 


OF  TYANA . 


31 


the  genius  of  history  has  assigned  him  an  important 
niche  in  her  temple.1 

He  was  not  only  a  man  of  general  culture  but  of 
tolerant  and  liberal  views  on  subjects  of  religion,  and  is 
quoted  as  authority  by  hundreds  of  subsequent  writers. 
He  was  the  only  authority  upon  which  J.  T.  Wood, 
F.  S.  A.,  based  his  theory,  and  the  only  guide  to  his  ex¬ 
plorations,  which  resulted  in  such  glorious  achievements 
at  Ephesus.2 

The  discovery  of  the  temple  of  Diana  on  New 
Year’s  Day,  1870,  one  of  the  greatest  archaeological 
legacies  of  modern  times,  was  the  result  of  a  careful 
reading  of  Philostratus,  who  says  that  “  a  rich  Roman 
named  Damianus  had  connected  the  temple  with  the 
city  by  a  stoa,  or  covered  portico,  six  hundred  feet  in 
length ;  and  so  accurate  was  Philostratus  in  this  state¬ 
ment  and  details,  that  upon  it  alone  Mr.  Wood  com¬ 
menced  his  excavations  and  obtained  his  great  success.3 
Philostratus  wrote  also  on  religious  subjects  embraced 
within  the  first  half  of  the  first  century  of  our  era. 


1  Universal  Pronouncing  Diction¬ 
ary  of  Biography  and  Mythology , 
( Thomas,  Philadel  phia,  1 8  70),  2  vols. ; 
also,  History  of  Philosophy :  Fabri - 
cus ,  Bibliotheca  Grceca ,  Rehfus.  “  A 
la  renaissance  des  lettres  Philostrate 
obtint  en  Europe  les  honneurs 
que  meriterent  les  grands  ecrivains 
d’Athenes  et  de  Rome. — Le  Grand 
d’Aussy,  p.  42,  avant proposP 

2  Mr.  Wood  says :  “  In  my  per¬ 
plexity  I  chose  Strabo,  Pausanias, 

and  Philostratus.  The  last-named 
appeared  to  give  the  most  valuable 


information  to  the  probable  site  of 
the  temple,  etc.” — Discoveries  at 
Ephesus ,  etc.  (J.  T.  Wood,  1877), 
p.  22. 

3  This  temple  was  three  hundred 
and  forty-three  feet  long  by  one 
hundred  and  sixty-four  wide,  and 
was  built  about  500  b.  c.  It  was 
burned  by  Erostratus  356  B.  c.,  and 
was  ruined  by  the  Goths  262  a.  d. 
Coins  and  medals  found  in  the  villa 
of  Hadrian  and  now  in  the  museum 
of  the  Vatican  confirm  the  chro¬ 
nology  of  the  temple. 


APOLLONIUS 


2  2 

He  speaks  at  length  on  the  religious  customs,  super¬ 
stitions,  and  schisms  among  the  Jews  and  pagans,  and 
there  are  no  reliable  writings  of  the  period  now  extant 
which  throw  more  valuable  light  upon  the  manners, 
customs,  creeds,  and  politics  of  the  times  than  those  of 
Philostratus.1  He  died,  according  to  Suidas,  at  the 
age  of  seventy  or  over. 

Rev.  Albert  Reville  says  that  Philostratus  was  one 
of  the  many  men  of  letters  who  gravitated  around 
Julia  Domna,  wife  of  Septimius  Severus  (a.  D.  193  to 
211).2  She  was  a  woman  of  uncommon  attainments 
and  purity  of  character.  The  efforts  made  by  early 
Christian  writers  to  defame  her  by  charging  upon  her 
incest  have  been  amply  refuted  by  Herodian  and  Dion 
Cassius.  Her  likeness  is  said  to  be  faithfully  repre¬ 
sented  on  Roman  coins,  many  of  which  are  still  extant ; 
on  some  she  is  associated  with  Septimius  Severus, 
Caracalla,  and  Geta.  They  are  of  both  gold  and  cop¬ 
per.  Julia  was  the  daughter  of  Bassianus,  a  priest  of 
the  sun  (so  says  Dr.  Reville),  a  native  of  the  city  of 
Emesa  in  Syria,  near  Jerusalem,  and  was  entitled  the 
beautiful  Carian.  As  soon  as  she  was  made  empress, 
she  attracted  about  her  the  finest  intellects  and  the 
greatest  orators  of  her  day,  among  whom  were  Dion 

1  “  In  the  Life  of  Apollonius ,”  which  would,  of  necessity,  influence 
says  Rev.  Albert  Reville,  “we  are  the  sympathies  of  pagan  thinkers, 
enabled  to  understand  more  of  the  On  these  grounds  it  richly  deserves 
moral  aspect  of  times  which  it  is  the  high  rank  assigned  to  it  by 
almost  impossible  to  realize  when  modern  criticism.” — Reville’s  Apol- 
studied  in  the  light  of  Roman  his-  Ionites,  p.  5. 

tory  than  in  any  extant  contempo-  2  Cf  Eutropius’s  Abridgtnent  of 
raneous  writings.  It  admits  us  at  Roman  History,  b.  8,  c.  xviii. 
once  into  the  religious  atmosphere 


OF  TYANA. 


33 


Cassius,  Ulpian,  Papinianus,  and  Philostratus.1  She 
lived  much  in  seclusion,  devoting  her  time  to  literature 
and  philosophy,  and  it  was  at  her  instigation  that 
Philostratus  prepared  and  published  the  Life  of  Apollo¬ 
nius  of  Tyana ,  she  having  furnished  the  materials.2 
She  also  brought  together  a  great  collection  of  works 
on  art,  and  a  library  devoted  to  biography  and  philoso¬ 
phy  ;  and,  next  to  the  great  enchantress,  Cleopatra,  we 
know  of  no  -woman  of  ancient  times  who  became  so 
eminent  as  a  collector  of  literature.  She  brought  to¬ 
gether  books  from  every  part  of  the  known  world,  and 
formed  an  immense  library,  the  nucleus  of  which,  how¬ 
ever,  was  laid  by  Ulpinus  Trajanus,  but  was  rendered 


1  History  of  Greek  Literature  (Ma- 
haffy),  vol.  ii.  p.351. — Dion  Cassius 
was  born  in  Nicsea,  A.  D.  155.  He 
was  a  descendant  from  Dion  Chrys¬ 
ostom,  and  governor  of  Smyrna 
and  Pergamus  under  Macrinus.  He 
wrote  several  works  in  Greek,  the 
principal  of  which  was  a  History  of 
Rome  down  to  his  day,  in  eighty 
books ;  fragments  only  remain  in 
the  works  of  Xiphilinus.  There  are 
eighty  speeches  of  his  on  Philosophy, 
etc.  His  writings  are  esteemed  for 
their  elegance  of  style  and  their  ac¬ 
curacy  ;  he  was  diligent  in  research, 
and  his  work  was  a  rich  collection 
of  documents  on  Roman  institu¬ 
tions;  he  did  not  recognize  Christ 
or  Christians  ;  and  from  the  nature 
of  his  writings,  the  country,  and 
period,  it  seems  marvelous  that  he 
should  have  omitted  it  upon  any 
other  theory  than  that  they  were  not 


there.  Domitius  Ulpian,  an  eminent 
Roman  jurist,  born  at  Tyre,  A.  D. 
170.  He  was  author  of  a  work 
entitled  Ad  Edictum ,  the  fragments 
of  which  have  been  published.  He 
was  assassinated  by  his  soldiers, 
A.  D.  228. 

2  It  is  remarkable  that  Philostra¬ 
tus,  a  man  of  character  and  reputa¬ 
tion,  should  have  believed  a  tithe  of 
the  wonders  he  has  related  of  him ; 
and  notwithstanding  all  this  evident 
falsehood  of  Apollonius,  such  was 
the  superstition  and  credulity  of  his 
period,  that  temples  and  statues 
were  erected  in  his  honor,  and  his 
appellation  was,  “  the  true  friend 
of  the  gods.” — The  Philosophy  of 
Magic ,  Prodigies ,  and  Apparent 
Miracles,  by  Eusebe  Salverte,  with 
notes  by  Anthony  T.  Thompson,. 
2  vols.  (London,  1844),  vol.  i. 
p.  248. 


5 


34 


APOLLONIUS 


famous  and  ponderous  through  the  patronage  of  Julia 
Domna.1  This  great  library  remained  intact  until  the 


1  We  have  no  information  to  be 
relied  upon  concerning  Grecian 
books  before  the  wars  of  Troy  and 
Thebes.  The  Lacedaemonians  had 
no  books ;  their  trained  memories 
rendered  books  useless  for  that  age. 
But  if  the  Greeks  had  few  books 
the  Romans  had  still  less,  in  this 
early  age.  The  Athenians,  who 
were  great  speakers,  also  wrote  a 
great  deal ;  and  when  the  age  of 
books  began,  Athenian  literature 
formed  the  material  for  many  vol¬ 
umes  which  enriched  the  later  Gre¬ 
cian  libraries.  When  Xerxes  be¬ 
came  master  of  Athens,  he  removed 
all  the  books  and  manuscripts  to 
Persia.  Zuringer  says  :  “  There  was 
a  magnificent  library  on  the  island 
of  Cnidus,  which  was  burned  by 
order  of  Hippocrates,  because  the 
inhabitants  refused  to  adopt  his 
method  of  medicine.”  The  most 
numerous,  as  well  as  the  best  se¬ 
lected  libraries,  were  those  of  the 
Egyptians,  who  surpassed  all  other 
.  nations  by  their  books  and  knowl¬ 
edge.  Diodorus,  the  Sicilian,  in¬ 
forms  us  that  Osymandias  was  the 
first  who  founded  a  library  in 
Egypt  (b.  c.  1800).  There  was  a 
library  at  Memphis,  in  the  temple 
of  Vulcan,  at  the  time  of  Homer, 
whom  Naucrates  accused  of  steal¬ 
ing  the  Iliad  and  Odyssey,  and 
using  them  as  his  own  productions. 
The  most  magnificent  library  of 
Egypt  was  that  begun  under  Ptol¬ 
emy  Soter  (his  portrait  is  preserved 


on  a  bronze  medal  in  the  British 
Museum)  at  Alexandria.  His  son, 
Ptolemy  Philadelphus,  inherited  the 
book  passion,  and  enriched  this 
Alexandrian  library.  Josephus  says 
there  were  200,000  volumes  in  this 
library.  When  Julius  Caesar  was 
besieged  in  Alexandria,  he  found  it 
necessary  to  set  fire  to  the  fleet  as 
it  entered  the  port ;  the  wind,  un¬ 
luckily,  spread  the  flames,  and  the 
fire  communicated  with  the  city, 
and  the  celebrated  library  was  de¬ 
stroyed  ;  it  is  said  to  have  contained 
400,000  volumes.  The  books  saved 
from  this  conflagration,  and  the 
fragments  of  the  library  of  Per- 
gamus,  given  to  Cleopatra  by  An¬ 
tony,  were  formed  into  the  new 
library  of  Serapion.  Plutarch  as¬ 
sures  us  that  Paulus  ^Emilius  dis¬ 
tributed  among  his  children  the 
library  of  Perseus,  king  of  Mace- 
don,  whom  he  led  captive  to  Rome 
(167  B.  c.)  Next  came  the  library 
of  Apellicon,  the  Teian,  brought 
from  Athens  by  Sully  (86  B.  c.) 
Plutarch  also  mentions  the  library 
of  Lucullus  as  one  of  the  most  con¬ 
siderable  in  the  world,  both  for  the 
number  of  volumes  and  the  monu¬ 
ments  with  which  it  was  decorated. 
Augustus  founded  a  library  on  the 
Mount  Palatin  (30  B.  c. ),  which 
was  burned  during  the  conflagration 
under  Titus.  The  idea  of  this  li¬ 
brary  was  conceived  by  Julius 
Caesar.  Tiberius  founded  one  near 
the  temple  of  Apollo,  and  Vespasian 


OF  TYANA. 


35 


time  of  Justinian,  A.  D.  410/  who  renovated  it  of  its 
“  philosophical  chaff/’  as  he  called  it ;  but  which  was 
really  a  wedge  entered  for  its  destruction.  It  was  left, 
however,  for  Pope  Gregory  the  Great,  who  became 
disgusted  with  the  vast  amount  of  pagan  literature  (a.  D. 
585),  to  entirely  demolish  it.  Thus  ended  one  of  the 
great  libraries  of  the  world,2  and  with  it  probably 
perished  the  noblest  collection  of  pagan  literature  ever 
brought  together. 

The  primitive  Christians,  renouncing  every  other 
care  but  that  of  the  salvation  of  souls,  burnt  all  the 
books  which  they  could  lay  hold  of  bearing  no  affinity 
to  their  religion  ;  and  thus,  for  more  than  one  thousand 
years,  this  conflict  against  literature  and  learning  con¬ 
tinued.  The  Crusaders  burnt  the  library  of  Tripoli ; 
Cardinal  Ximenes  delivered  to  the  flames  at  Grenada, 
in  the  sixteenth  century,  80,000  Arabian  manuscripts, 
many  of  them  translations  of  classical  authors.3 


founded  one  near  the  temple  of 
Peace  in  imitation  of  Augustus  and 
Tiberius,  after  the  burning  of  Rome 
under  Nero.  But  the  grandest  Ro¬ 
man  library  was  the  Ulpian,  founded 
by  the  Emperor  Trajan  in  the 
forum,  afterward  removed  to  the 
baths  of  Diocletian.  This  library 
was  patronized  and  enlarged  by 
Julia  Domna.  It  contained  the 
works  of  many  renowned  writers  - — 
as  Callimachus,  Lycophron  and  Apol¬ 
lonius  Rhodus,  poets ;  Eratosthe¬ 
nes,  who  measured  the  size  of  the 
earth ;  of  Apollonius  ;  of  Perga, 
who  invented  conic  sections  ;  of 
Hipparchus,  who  made  a  list  of  the 
stars ;  of  Euclid,  the  geometrician  ; 


of  Manetho,  the  astrologer  ;  of  Dio¬ 
nysius,  author  of  a  geographical 
poem;  of  Aratus,  poet ;  and  Nican- 
der,  writer  on  medicine. 

1  Histoire  de  Jtistinien  (Isambert, 
1856)  ;  Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Ro¬ 
man  Empire  (Gibbon)  ;  Grandeur 
et  Decadence  des  Domains,  ch.  xx. 
(Montesquieu). 

2  Cf.  Ecclesiastical  History  ( Fleu- 
ry);  Encyclopedia  Brit.,  art.  Libra¬ 
ries  ;  The  Lives  of  the  Fathers, 
Martyrs,  and  other  Principal  Saints, 
etc.,  by  Rev.  Alban  Butler,  12  vols. ; 
vol.  iii.  p.  109,  art.  Gregory. 

3  History  of  the  Conflict  between 
Science  and  Religion,  by  John  W. 
Draper,  M.  D.,  LL.  D.,  p.  104. 


36 


APOLLONIUS 


Julia  Domna  died,  A.  D.  217.  “As  an  accomplished 
and  distinguished  woman,”  Rev.  A.  Reville  says,  “  she 
occupies  the  foremost  rank.”  She  was  known  and  be¬ 
loved  at  Jerusalem,  where  a  coin  bearing  her  effigy  was 
struck,  and  another  bearing  her  effigy  and  name.  The 
citizens  of  Tyana  also  honored  her  by  striking  a  coin 
to  her,  and  Roman  coins  bearing  her  portrait  and  name 
are  now  plentiful.1 

The  journal  of  Damis,  a  disciple  of  Apollonius,  and 
the  principal  source  of  Philostratus’s  information  con¬ 
cerning  Apollonius,  embracing  a  period  from  about 
A.  D.  43  to  A.  D.  98,  was  furnished  by  Julia  Domna 
from  her  valuable  collection  of  authentic  manuscripts, 
before  referred  to.  It  is  a  plain  story  made  up  of  in- 


1  Pagan  as  she  was,  the  people 
of  Jerusalem,  as  late  as  the  third 
century,  struck  a  coin  in  honor  of 
Julia  Domna.  It  bore  her  portrait 
on  one  side  and  a  turreted  female 
on  the  other,  symbolical  of  confi¬ 
dence.  A  fine  example  of  this  ex¬ 
ceedingly  rare  coin  is  in  the  Reich- 
ardt  Collection,  London.  The  por¬ 
trait  of  Julia  Domna  on  the  Roman 
minted  coins  of  her  day,  and  they 
are  abundant,  represents  a  woman 
about  thirty-five,  with  fine  features 
and  a  severe  expression.  These 
coins  were  struck  in  all  the  metals 
—  gold,  silver,  bronze,  and  copper. 
The  type  of  the  gold  coin  is,  Cybele 
seated  between  two  lions,  with  an 
inscription,  MATER  DEUM  ;  and  on 
the  reverse,  ivlia  domna  avc, 
with  Venus  leaning  on  a  column, 
VENERI  VICTR.  —  Cf.  History  of 
Jewish  Coinages  in  the  Old  and 


Arew  Testaments,  by  Frederick  W. 
Madden  (London,  1864);  Coin  Col¬ 
lectors'  Manual:  or,  Guide  to  the 
Formation  of  a  Cabinet  of  Coins, 
etc.,  etc.,  by  H.  Noel  Humphrey, 
vol.  ii.  pp.  346,  624,  668 ;  also, 
Coins  and  Medals  of  the  Ancients, 
etc.,  by  Barclay  V.  Head  (London, 
1801);  also,  Spartianus  Vita  Septim- 
ius  Severus,  c.  xvii. 

We  regret  exceedingly  that  Greek 
coins  lie  without  the  field  of  our  re¬ 
search  ;  we  come  entirely  within 
the  Roman  empire,  and  all  Greek 
coins  antedated  that  period.  The 
study  of  Greek  coins  is  one  of  the 
most  instructing  and  interesting 
chapters  in  the  history  of  ancient 
civilization.  We  shall  indulge  a 
little  in  reference  to  them  in  such  a 
manner  as  is  not  entirely  irrelevant 
to  our  story,  but  which  is  crisp  and 
sparkling  in  interest. 


OF  TYANA. 


37 


tensely  interesting  and  well  selected  events  in  the  life 
of  Apollonius,  put  down  as  they  transpired  by  a  sim¬ 
ple  and  enamored  disciple  who  loved  his  master,  and 
from  the  first  to  the  last  believed  him  to  be  inspired ; 
who  never  doubted  or  denied  him,  and  who  was  never 
happy  out  of  his  presence. 

But  the  greatest  literary  merit  of  the  journal  is  the 
consortship  it  begets  with  its  principal  actor.  We 
journey  with  him  in  his  travels  from  Cappadocia  into 
farther  India,  Ionia,  Rome,  Spain,  Africa,  Egypt,  Sicily; 
become  familiar  with  every  move,  his  features,  his 
moods,  and  his  eccentricities ;  we  learn  to  pity  his 
weaknesses,  and  sympathetically  share  his  misfortunes. 
All  this  may  be  attributed  to  the  enthusiasm  and  art¬ 
lessness  of  Damis,  and  is  probably  as  free  from  design 
as  is  that  biography  of  biographies,  Boswell’s  Life  of 
Johnson}  Having  now,  I  think,  thoroughly  demon- 


1  J.  A.  Froude,  in  The  Nineteenth 
Century  of  September,  1879,  says: 
“  In  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  we 
meet  with  a  class  of  persons  whose 
features  in  our  own  times  become 
again  familiar  to  us, —  quacks  and 
conjurers,  professing  to  be  in  com¬ 
munication  with  the  spiritual  world, 
and  who  are  regarded  with  curi¬ 
osity  and  interest  by  serious  men 
high  in  rank  and  authority.  Ser¬ 
gius  Paulus  was  craving  for  any 
light  which  could  be  given  to  him, 
and  in  default  of  better  teaching 
had  listened  to  Elymas  the  sorcerer. 
Simon  Magus,  if  we  may  credit 
Catholic  tradition,  was  in  favor  at 
the  imperial  court  of  Rome,  where 
he  matched  his  power  against  St. 


Peter,  and  was  defeated  only  be¬ 
cause  God  was  stronger  than  the 
devil.  The  curious  arts  of  these 
people  were  regarded  both  by  Chris¬ 
tian  and  heathen  as  a  mastery  of  a 
supernatural  secret,  and  in  the  hun¬ 
ger  for  information  about  the  great 
mystery  with  which  the  whole  so¬ 
ciety  was  possessed,  they  rose  many 
of  them  into  positions  of  extraordi¬ 
nary  influence  and  consequence. 
Asia  Minor  seems  to  have  been 
the  chief  breeding-ground  of  this 
Eastern  magic,  and  here  it  came  in 
contact  with  Greek  civilization,  and 
this  imposture  was  able  to  disguise 
itself  in  the  phases  of  philosophy. 
Apollonius  of  Tyana  was  the  most 
remarkable  of  these  adventurers. 


38 


APOLLONIUS 


strated  the  status  of  Philostratus  as  a  respectable  his¬ 
torian,  and  one  entitled  to  the  highest  consideration  as 
a  student  and  scholar,  we  will  proceed  with  the  narra- 


According  to  Philostratus  he  was  a 
heathen  saviour,  who  claimed  a  com¬ 
mission  from  heaven  to  teach  a  pure 
and  reformed  religion,  and  in  attes¬ 
tation  of  his  authority  went  about 
healing  the  sick,  curing  the  blind, 
raising  dead  men  to  life,  casting 
out  demons,  stilling  tempests,  and 
prophesying  future  events,  which 
came  afterward  to  pass.  The  in¬ 
teresting  fact  about  Apollonius  is 
the  extensive  recognition  he  ob¬ 
tained  and  the  ease  with  which  his 
impostures  found  acceptance  in  the 
existing  condition  of  the  popular 
mind.  He  was  born,  four  years 
before  the  Christian  era,  in  Tyana, 
a  city  of  Cappadocia  (cf.  Phylostra- 
tus  de  Vita  Apollonii  Tyanei  Scriptor 
Luculentus ,  a  Philippo  BeroaldoCas- 
tigatus,  primus  lib.  [1502]).  His 
parents  sent  him  to  be  educated  at 
Tarsus,  in  Cilicia,  a  place  of  consid¬ 
erable  wealth  and  repute,  and  he 
must  have  been  about  the  beginning 
of  his  studies  there  when  St.  Paul 
as  a  little  boy  was  first  running 
about  the  streets.  The  life  in  Tar¬ 
sus  being  too  luxurious  for  Apollo¬ 
nius’s  aspirations,  he  betook  himself 
to  the  temple  of  .dEsculapius  at  dEgse, 
and  became  a  water-drinker  and  a 
vegetarian.  His  devotion  to  yEs- 
culapius  means  that  he  studied 
medicine.  On  the  death  of  his 
father  he  divided  his  property 
among  the  poor,  and  after  five  years’ 


retirement  he  traveled  as  far  as  In¬ 
dia  in  search  of  knowledge.  Here 
he  discoursed  with  the  learned  Brah¬ 
mans,  and  came  home  with  enlight¬ 
ened  ideas  and  with  some  skill  in 
the  arts  of  the  Indian  jugglers 
(there  is  no  warrant  for  the  last 
assertion  in  the  journal  of  Damis). 
With  these  two  possessions  he  be¬ 
gan  his  career  as  a  teacher  in  the 
Roman  empire.  He  preached  his 
new  religion,  and  performed  mira¬ 
cles  to  induce  people  to  believe  in 
him.  He  was  at  Rome  in  Nero’s 
time,  when  Simon  Magus  and  St. 
Peter  were  there.  In  the  convul¬ 
sions  which  followed  Nero’s  mur¬ 
der,  being  then  an  old  man,  he 
attached  himself  to  Vespasian  in 
Egypt.  Vespasian,  who  was  not 
without  his  superstitions,  and  had 
himself  once  been  persuaded  to 
work  a  miracle,  is  said  to  have 
looked  kindly  on  him  and  patronized 
him,  and  Apollonius  blossomed  out 
into  glory  as  the  spiritual  adviser 
of  the  Vespasian  dynasty.  The 
cruelties  of  Domitian  estranged  him. 
He  was  accused  of  conspiring  with 
Nerva  and  vdth  having  sacrificed  a 
child  to  bribe  the  gods  to  Nerva’s 
interest.  He  was  even  charged 
with  having  pretended  being  a  god 
himself.  He  was  arraigned,  con¬ 
victed,  and  was  about  to  suffer, 
when  he  vanished  out  of  the  hands 
of  the  Roman  police  and  reappeared 


OF  TYANA. 


39 


tive  of  Apollonius,1  a  sketch  of  whom  had  been 
previously  published  by  Maximus  of  Algae,2  a  secretary 
to  Emperor  Archelaus  and  tutor  to  Apollonius.3  This 
account  was  written  and  published  between  A.  D.  17 
and  A.  D.  20,  while  he  was  yet  a  youth.  It  extolled 
the  wonderful  mental  qualities  of  the  youth,  and  re¬ 
garded  him  especially  favored  of  the  gods.  The 
sketch  was  quite  imperfect,  a  fact  of  which  Philostratus 
complains. 

There  was  another  account  of  Apollonius  in  the  four 
books  of  Maeragenes.  Philostratus  does  not  speak 
very  complimentary  of  this  work.4  He  says:  “There 


at  Ephesus,  where  he  soon  after 
died.  Apollonius  of  Tyana,  among 
many  others,  was  looked  upon 
through  a  greater  part  of  the  Ro¬ 
man  empire  as  an  emanation  of 
the  divine  nature.  Such  periods 
are  the  opportunities  of  false  pro¬ 
phets.” 

1  “  Sur  les  oeuvres  de  Philostratus 
et  celles  de  son  neveu  Philostrate  le 
Jeune  voyez  deux  excellents  articles 
de  M.  Miller.” — Journal  de  Sa¬ 
vants ,  Octobre  et  Decembre,  1849. 

As  before  stated,  Apollonius  was 
born  in  the  year  one  of  the  Chris¬ 
tian  era,  four  years  after  the  death 
of  Herod,  king  of  Judea,  who  had 
divided  his  kingdom  among  his 
surviving  sons,  Archelaus,  Antipas, 
and  Philippus.  His  will  and  dispo¬ 
sition  of  his  kingdom  was  in  the 
main  approved  by  Augustus  (a.  d. 
7).  Archelaus,  king  of  Judea,  was 
removed  and  banished  to  Vienne, 
and  was  succeeded,  in  A.  D.  9,  by 


Marcus  Ambivius.  The  next  proc¬ 
urator  in  Judea  was  Ammianus  Ru¬ 
fus  (a.  d.  13).  The  next  year 
Augustus  died. 

2  Algae  was  a  sea-port  town  of 
Cilicia,  noted  for  its  shipping  and 
its  pirates.  —  Lucian’s  Fharsalia, 
b.  iii.  227. 

3  Parmi  les  auteurs  grecs  qui  ont 
parle  d’ Apollonius  quatre  principale- 
ment  avoient  laisse  des  memoirs  sur 
la  vie :  ce  dont  Damis,  Maxime, 
Meragene,  et  Philostrate.  —  Vie 
d’ Apollonius  de  Tyane ,  par  Pierre 
Jean  Baptiste  Le  Grand  d’Aussy 
(Paris,  1807),  p.  35,  avant  propos. 

Archelaus  ascended  the  throne  of 
Cappadocia  34  B.  c.  He  wras  the 
son  of  a  high-priest  of  the  same 
name,  who  was  deposed  by  Caesar. 
Died,  A.  d.  17. 

4  Origen  refers  to  this  Life  of 
Apollonius  by  Maeragenes  to  prove 
that  he  was  a  magician,  and  per¬ 
formed  miracles  by  magic. 


40 


APOLLONIUS 


was  a  certain  man  named  Damis,  who  was  well  read  in 
philosophy,  a  citizen  of  ancient  Ninus,  who  became 
one  of  the  disciples  of  Apollonius,  and  who  wrote  an 
account  of  his  travels,  wherein  he  set  down  his  opinions, 
discourses,  and  predictions:”1  Julia  Augusta  became 
possessed  of  these  commentaries,  and  as  “  I  was  a  great 
deal  conversant  in  the  imperial  family  from  the  en¬ 
couragement  given  by  the  Empress  to  rhetoric  and  its 
professors,  she  commanded  me  to  transcribe  and  revise 
the  commentaries,  and  pay  particular  attention  to  the 
style  and  language,  for  the  narrative  of  the  Ninevite 
was  plain  and  not  eloquent.  To  assist  me  in  the  work 
I  was  fortunate  in  procuring  the  book  of  Maximus,  the 
Aegean,  which  contained  all  the  actions  of  Apollonius 
at  Algae,  and  a  transcript  of  his  will,  from  which  it  ap¬ 
peared  how  much  his  philosophy  was  under  the  influence 
of  a  sacred  enthusiasm ;  also  a  collection  of  letters,  and 
some  private  memoranda,  relative  to  his  conduct  and 
opinions,  and,  lastly,  public  records.  I  also  happened 
to  meet  with  the  four  books  of  Mseragenes,  which  were 
not  of  great  value  on  account  of  the  ignorance  of  the 
writer.  I  have  now  explained  the  manner  of  my  col¬ 
lecting  materials,  and  the  care  taken  in  their  compila¬ 
tion.”2  Nicomachus3  and  Tascius  Victorianus4  were  not, 
as  has  been  claimed,  biographers  of  Apollonius;  they 
were  men  of  learning,  who  corrected  the  copies  of  Phil- 
ostratus,  as  they  did  those  of  Livy  and  other  authors ; 


1  Philostrati  Opus  luculentum  vita 
Apollinii  Thyanei  philosophi  pytha- 
gorici,  ad  Philip  Bervaldum,  p.  28. 

2  The  Life  of  A pollonius  of  Tyana, 

translated  from  the  Greek  of  Philos- 

tratus,  with  notes  and  illustrations, 


by  Rev.  Edward  Berwick,  vicar  of 
Leixlip,  Ireland  (1809),  p.  6. 

3  Mathematician  and  Pythagorean, 
and  a  contemporary  of  Philostratus. 

4  A  grammarian  and  contempo¬ 
rary  of  Philostratus. 


OF  TYANA. 


41 


nor  was  there  ever  a  Life  of  Apollonius  of  Tyana  com¬ 
piled  by  Apollonius  Sidonius,  as  some  writers  have 

♦ 

stated ; 1  he  only  transcribed  the  works  of  Philostratus.2 
Tyana,  the  birthplace  of  Apollonius,  was  a  Greek 
city ; 3  the  capital  of  Tyanitis,  a  prefecturate  of  Cappa¬ 
docia,  and  situated  on  the  causeway  of  Semiramis, 
about  midway  from  Caesarea  and  Tarsus;  it  was  built 
by  Troas,  king  of  Tauro  Scythi,  and  was  first  named 
Eusebia,  from  the  worship  of  Jupiter  Asmabaeus;  the 
city  is  chiefly  remarkable  for  being  the  birthplace  of 
Apollonius  —  hence  he  is  called  Tyaneius. 

“  Ostendit  ad  hue  Tyaneius  illic 

Incola  de  Medio  vicines  corpore  Truncos.” 

Ovid  Metam. — 8. 

At  the  period  here  referred  to,  Tyana  was  the  metrop¬ 
olis  of  Cappadocia,  which  became  a  Roman  province 
under  Tiberius  Augustus  A.  D.  16.4  Apollonius  was  con¬ 
nected  with  the  ancient  and  honorable  families  who  were 
the  founders  of  the  city,  and  he  bore  the  same  name  as 
his  father,  from  whom  he  inherited  a  competency,  which 
was  conveyed  to  him  by  will,  and  into  the  possession 


1  Clinton,  Fasti  Romani,  vol.  i. 
p.  256. 

2  Le  Cabinet  des  Antiques  de  la 

Bibliotheque  imperiale  possede  un 
contorniate  d’une  haute  antiquite 

sur  lequel  est  represente  le  buste 
d’ Apollonius  de  Tyane.  Les  traits 
sont  nobles,  la  tete  porte  une  cou- 
ronne,  et  le  corps  est  revetu  de  la 
tunique  et  du  pallium.  Voyez  la 
gravure  de  ce  contorniate  dans 
F Iconographie  Grecqtie  de  Visconti, 
planche  xvii. — Apollonius  de  Tyane , 

6 


sa  Vie,  ses  Voyages,  ses  Prodiges,  par 
Philostrate,  etc.,  etc.  (A.  Chassang), 
p.  v.  Intro. 

3  All  of  the  coins  of  the  city  of 
Tyana,  and  there  is  an  unbroken 
series  from  Nero  to  Septimius  Sev- 
erus,  217  A.  D.,  were,  with  Latin 
inscriptions  and  pagan  coins,  con¬ 
tinued  to  be  struck  and  circulated  in 
Cappadocia  six  centuries  after  this 
period. 

4  Tacitus  died  at  Tyana,  A.  D.  276. 
— Lares  and  Penates  (Barker),  p.  38. 


42 


APOLLONIUS 


of  which  he  entered  on  arriving  at  age.  When  he  was 
fourteen  years  of  age,  the  year  in  which  Augustus 
died,1  and  the  first  of  the  reign  of  Tiberius,  his  father 


1  Augustus  died  on  the  fourteenth 
of  the  calends  of  September  (19 
August),  A.  D.  14,  being  seventy-six 
years  of  age. —  Cf.  Suetonius’s  Lives 
of  the  Twelve  Ccesars  (Bohn  edition, 
A.  D.  1853),  p.  145,  etc. 

The  coins  of  Augustus  are  very 
numerous  in  gold,  silver,  bronze, 
and  copper,  and  are  confirmatory  of 
nearly  all  the  important  events  as¬ 
cribed  to  his  reign,  and  nearly  all  of 
the  weaknesses  of  his  character. 

It  may  here  at  the  outset  be  said 
of  Roman  coins  in  general  that  they 
delineate  with  fidelity  and  preserve 
with  little  variation  more  portraits 
of  real  characters  (the  portrait  of 
Cicero  was  from  a  Roman  coin), 
give  more  perfect  representations  of 
implements,  dresses,  buildings,  and 
symbols,  fix  precisely  more  chrono¬ 
logical  dates,  record  a  greater  num¬ 
ber  of  historical  events,  and  afford 

l 

better  traces  of  manners  and  cus¬ 
toms  than  the  coins  of  any  other 
nation. — Numismata  imperatorum 
Romanorum  a  Traiano  Decio  ad 
Palceologos  Augustos  accessit  Biblio¬ 
theca  nummaria  sive  Auctorum  qui 
de  renummaria  scr ipse  runt  Lutetice 
Parisiorum ,  2  vols.  folio  (1718),  par 
A.  Banduri. 

On  some  of  the  coins  of  Augustus 
he  is  associated  with  Julius  Caesar, 
on  others  with  Lepidus,  Agrippa, 
Tiberius,  Julia,  Caius,  and  Julius  and 
Germanicus.  And  many  of  these 


coins  were  restored  by  Claudius,  by 
Nero,  Titus,  Domitian,  Nerva,  and 
Trajan,  ROM  et  avg.  This  was  virt¬ 
ually  an  indorsement  of  the  Au¬ 
gustan  administration.  On  his  per¬ 
sonal  coins  Augustus  is  represented 
as  the  “ Son  of  God."  A  later  coin 
represents  him  wearing  a  laurel 
wreath  after  the  manner  of  Apollo, 
inscribed  “  Caesar  Augustus,  Son  of 
God.  ”  The  usual  types  of  Augustan 
coins  were :  A  Bull  Walking ,  Head 
of  Augustus  (one  of  these  was  re¬ 
stored  by  Trajan)  ;  Winged  Victory , 
Globe ,  restored  by  Nerva.  Three 
brass  coins,  Quadriga  with  Ele¬ 
phants,  restored  by  Titus,  also  by 
Nerva.  All  the  Egyptian  coins  of 
Augustus  were  in  Greek.  Some 
bear  the  Eagle  and  Thunderbolt 
(common  to  Syracuse)  with  the 
emperor’s  head  and  his  title  as 
“  Son  of  God."  There  seems  to  be 
some  quality  on  the  above  coins  of 
Augustus  which  recommend  them 
to  his  successors  for  reproduction, 
and  in  the  estimate  which  Apol¬ 
lonius  has  put  upon  their  characters 
respectively  it  is  just  what  we  might 
have  anticipated.  —  Cf.  Traite  des 
finances  et  de  la  fausse  monnoie  des 
Romains,  auquel  on  a  joint  line  dis¬ 
sertation  surla  maniere  de  disc  emeries 
Medailles  antiques, etc.  (Paris, 1 740); 
also,  Numismata  imperatorum  Au- 
gustorum  et  Ccesarum  a  populis  Ro¬ 
mance  ditiones  grcece  loquentibus  ex 


OF  TYANA. 


43 


carried  him  to  Tarsus 1  to  be  educated,2  and  committed 
him  to  the  care  of  Euthydemus,  the  Phoenician,  a 
stoic  and  a  celebrated  rhetorician,  and  where  he  en¬ 
joyed  conversation  with  the  disciples  of  Pythagoras, 
Plato,  Chrysippus,  and  Aristotle.  During  the  first 


omni  modulo  percussa  quibus ,  etc. 
(J.  Vaillant,  Paris,  1698),  4to. 

By  a  vote  of  the  senate  the  name 
of  September  Sextilis,  the  sixth 
month  from  March,  was  changed  to 
August,  and  the  period  of  his  life 
from  birth  to  death  was  inserted  in 
the  calendar  under  the  title  of  Au¬ 
gustan  Age. 

The  Roman  empire  in  the  time 
of  Augustus  had  attained  to  a  pro¬ 
digious  magnitude.  It  was  bounded 
on  the  east  by  the  Euphrates,  on 
the  west  by  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  on 
the  north  it  extended  to  the  Danube 
and  the  Rhine,  on  the  south  to  the 
deserts  of  Africa.  It  included 
nearly  all  the  known  world.  And 
the  literary  fame  of  this  period  was 
more  marked  if  possible  than  its 
political. —  Cf.  Suetonius ,  p.  186. 

Although  illicit  pleasures  marked 
the  character  of  Augustus  in  his 
youth,  he  became  temperate  after 
he  became  emperor,  and  he  tried  to 
check  the  progress  of  corruption, 
but  it  was  in  the  bosom  of  his  own 
family  that  it  proved  irrepressible. 
His  daughter  Julia  became  so  dis¬ 
solute  and  such  a  scandal  that  he 
was  compelled  to  banish  her. — His- 
toire  du  Luxe  Prive  et  Public  depuis 
V Auguste  jusqu’a  nos  Jours,  par 
H.  Baudrillart,  4  vols.  (Paris,  1880). 


1  Philostratus,  i.  7. 

2  Tarsus,  the  metropolis  of  Cilicia, 
was  called  by  Strabo  “  The  Mother 
of  Cities,”  from  its  great  learning, 
and  St.  Paul  says  it  was  no  mean 
city.  During  the  period  of  which 
we  write  little  is  known  of  this  re¬ 
markable  city  of  Tarsus ;  the  chain 
of  history  appears  to  have  been 
severed  a  short  period  before  the 
Christian  era,  and  the  connection 
not  found  for  a  lapse  of  nearly  five 
centuries.  In  fact,  this  is  true  of 
nearly  all  Asia  Minor;  its  history  is 
little  more  than  speculation  and  hy¬ 
pothesis  from  B.  c.  130  to  A.  D.  800; 
although  we  know  from  the  results 
and  from  its  surviving  coins,  medals, 
and  monuments  that  the  period  was 
filled  with  important  events  and 
there  was  no  want  of  historians  to 
record  them. 

Tarsus  was  a  Phoenician  city; 
the  ancient  coins  amply  attest  this 
truth;  there  was  a  coin  of  Tarsus 
bearing  the  decree  of  Jupiter  Tarsus 
or  Baal  Tars  as  is  clearly  in  Phoe¬ 
nician  legend  sur  la  Numismatique 
des  Satrapes,  et  de  la  Phoenice  et 
la  Numismatique  et  inscriptions 
Cypriotes. — Recueil  des  Monnoies 
tant  anciennes  que  modernes ,  par 
de  Salzade  (Bruxelles,  1767),  p- 
30,  etc. 


44 


APOLLONIUS 


century  no  place  on  earth  was  more  tolerant  in  religious 
worship  than  Tarsus.  Apollo,  Isis,  Venus,  Jupiter, 
Serapis,  Mercury,  Diana,  Juno,  Pallas,  Pluto,  Her¬ 
cules,  Adonis,  Horus,  Pan,  Anubis,  Aesculapius,  were 
all  held  sacred,  and  had  their  shrines  here.1  Apol¬ 
lonius  became  attached  to  his  master,  but  the  manners 
of  the  city  did  not  please  him,  so  he  removed  with  his 
master  to  EEgae,2  a  maritime  town  near  Tarsus.  Here  he 
was  placed  under  the  tutelage  of  Euxemes  of  Herac- 
lea,  a  town  of  Pontus.  He  submitted  to  the  author¬ 
ity  of  Euxemes,  and  was  guided  by  his  advice  in  the 
attainment  of  knowledge;  although  not  having  much 
respect  for  his  philosophy,  which  was  of  the  Epicurean 
order,  he  nevertheless  continued  to  respect  him  for  his 
many  virtues,  and  afterward  gave  him  a  house  with  a 
garden  and  a  fountain  belonging  to  it.3 

Strabo  says  that  the  inhabitants  of  Tarsus  had  distin¬ 
guished  themselves  so  much  by  their  application  to 


1  Many  of  these  facts  were  demon¬ 
strated  on  the  coins  of  Tarsus,  as 
an  extant  coin  of  Tarsus  bearing 
the  image  of  Apollo,  seated  upon  a 
mount  with  a  lyre  in  his  hand,  indi¬ 
cating  that  this  deity  was  the  pre¬ 
siding  influence  in  the  schools. 
Apollo  was  an  oracle  in  Tarsus. 
Jupiter,  Mercury,  and  Juno  are  also 
represented  on  old  coins.  Strabo 
says  that  Tarsus  was  founded  by 
Triptolemus,  a  priest  of  Argos,  in 
his  search  for  Io,  and  remains  of 
statues  and  inscriptions  discovered 
at  Tarsus  prove  that  Io  was  vene¬ 
rated  there. — Lares  and  Penates , 
Cilicia  and  its  Governors ,  etc.  (Wm. 
Burckhardt  Barker,  London,  1853), 
p.  152,  etc. 


Barker  says  Tarsus  became  a 
Christian  city,  A.  D.  70.  The  coins 
of  Tarsus  go  far  to  disprove  this 
theory;  pagan  coins  were  struck  up 
to  the  6th  century,  and  no  edict  was 
promulgated  against  them  before 
the  8th  century. 

2  Antiochus,  a  celebrated  Greek 
sophist,  was  a  native  of  this  town. 
There  is  a  succession  of  coins  struck 
at  ^Egse  from  Augustus  to  Saloni- 
nus,  which  have  been  of  invaluable 
service  to  the  historian;  they  are 
not,  however,  pertinent,  otherwise 
than  generally,  to  our  inquiry.  They 
are  in  all  the  metals. 

3  Philostrati  opus  luculentum  de 
vita  A pollonii  Thy  and,  b.  i.  48. 


OF  TYANA. 


45 


philosophy  and  literature,  that  this  city,  in  that  respect, 
surpassed  Athens  or  Alexandria.  Tarsus  possessed 
schools  for  every  kind  of  instruction.  Among  the 
illustrious  men  produced  by  this  city  are,  Antipater, 
so  glowingly  spoken  of  by  Cicero ;  Archimedes  and 
Nestor,  stoic  philosophers ;  and  the  two  Athenadori, 
preceptors  of  Augustus,  also  stoics.  Augustus  sought 
the  friendship  of  the  stoics,  and  was  withheld  from 
many  cruelties  by  the  exhortations  of  stoic  philosophers. 
Another  celebrated  stoic,  Cordylion,  was  a  native  of 
Tarsus ;  he  was  librarian  of  Pergamus,  and  died  in  the 
house  of  Cato  at  Rome.1 

When  Tiberius2  came  into  power  (a.  D.  14)  he  re¬ 
moved  Ammianus  Rufus,  and  appointed  Valerius 
Gratus  procurator  in  Judea.  He  also  banished  all 
Jews  and  Egyptians  from  Rome,  considering  them 
dangerous  to  the  state.3  This  decree  extended  over 
the  whole  of  Italy  according  to  Suetonius.4 


1  The  stoic  of  whom  Cicero  speaks 
so  glowingly  was  a  native  of  Tarsus. 

2  The  Life  of  Tiberius  was  written 
in  the  second  century  by  Dion  Cas¬ 
sius,  a  friend  of  Philostratus  (and 
who  also  belonged  to  the  coterie  of 
Julia  Domna).  He  describes  him 
as  a  man  of  many  virtues  and  very 
many  vices  ;  both  of  which  he  car¬ 
ried  to  extreme  length.  Dion  and 
Tacitus  agree  in  their  estimate  of 
Tiberius.  Velleius  Paterculus,  a  sol¬ 
dier  who  served  under  Tiberius  in 
Germany  and  Pannonia,  in  the 
years  A.  D.  5  and  6,  wrote  his  cam¬ 
paigns  in  glowing  terms.  Suetonius, 
however,  has  dealt  severely  with 

the  character  of  Tiberius. — Cf.  Sue¬ 

tonius ,  p.  192  (Bohn  ed.) 


3  From  the  expulsion  of  Archelaus, 
the  ethnarch,  A.  D.  6,  to  the  death 
of  Augustus,  A.  D.  14,  there  were 
Roman  coins  struck  at  Jerusalem 
commemorating  every  important 
historical  event;  in  order  not  to 
offend  the  Jews,  they  were  without 
effigies.  They  had  uniformly  rep¬ 
resented  upon  them  Palms ,  Dates , 
Ears  of  Corn ,  Cornucopice,  and 
Laurel  Wreaths. — History  of  Jewish 
Coinage  and  of  Money  in  the  Old 
and  New  Testament,  by  Frederick 
W.  Madden  (London,  1864). 

4  Cf.  Suetonii  Tranquilli  opera 
et  in  ilia  Commentarius  Quo  Anti - 
quitaies  Romance ,  turn  ab  Inter- 
pretibus  Doctissimis ,  etc.,  vol.  i. 
p.  561. 


46 


APOLLONIUS 


As  Apollonius  grew  up  he  became  an  admirer  of 
Aesculapius,  in  whose  name  he  is  said  to  have  per¬ 
formed  some  wonderful  miracles  ;  and  he  also  began  to 
develop  evidences  of  greatness  of  character,  which  so 
conspicuously  marked  his  future  life.  He  was  author 
of  Four  Books  on  Judicial  Astrology ,  A  Treatise  on 
Sacrificed  and  many  epistles,  some  of  which  have  been 
preserved  by  Philostratus,  and  others  by  Cajucius ;  he 
was  also  author  of  some  memoirs.1 2  His  only  work 
of  importance,  which  has  reached  modern  times,  is  his 
Apology ,  written  in  reply  to  Euphrates.3 

The  Emperor  Adrian  collected  as  many  of  the  letters 
of  Apollonius  as  were  accessible,  and  kept  them  in  the 
palace  at  Antium,  with  a  little  book  of  Apollonius  con¬ 
cerning  the  answers  he  had  received  from  the  oracle 
of  Trophonius.  This  book  was  accessible  at  Antium 
in  the  time  of  Philostratus,  and  it  was  regarded  as  the 
most  curious  of  all  things  in  this  little  town.4  When 
Apollonius  was  in  his  eighteenth  year  Titus  Livius 
(Livy),  whose  philosophy  (lost)  and  style  of  rhetoric 
he  had  made  his  model,  died  at  Padua.  He  felt 
severely  the  loss  of  his  preceptor,  and  from  his  frequent 
mention  of  this  great  man  proves  that  he  cherished 
his  memory  to  the  end  of  his  life. 


1  This  book  was  quoted  by  Euse¬ 
bius  ;  Suidas  also  refers  to  it. 

2  Cf  Pierre  Bayle’s  Dictionnaire 
Historique  et  Critique ,  2  vols.  fol. ; 
also  English  edition,  4  vols.  fol. 

3  There  seems  but  little  doubt 
that  Apollonius  was  the  author  of  a 
voluminous  philosophical  literature, 

much  of  which  Philostratus  must 
have  had  before  him  in  the  diary 


of  Damis.  Damis  so  frequently 
says  that  he  only  preserved —  only 
committed  to  writing,  etc.  —  the 
most  valuable  of  the  sayings  and 
discourses  of  Apollonius.  —  Uni¬ 
versal  Pronouncing  Dictionary  of 
Biography  and  Mythology ,  by  J. 
Thomas,  A.  M.,  M.  D.;  art.  Apol¬ 
lonius  of  Tyana. 

4  Bayle’s  Dictionary . 


OF  TYANA. 


4  7 


Although  Apollonius  is  said  to  have  performed 
miracles  in  the  name  of  Aesculapius,1  yet  the  course  of 
his  life  to  its  very  close  was  strictly  in  accord  with  that 
course  laid  down  by  Pythagoras  to  his  disciples.2  His 
biographer,  however,  whether  unwittingly  or  design¬ 
edly,  classed  him  as  a  stoic,  and  we  believe  very  prop¬ 
erly  ;  for,  in  our  analysis  of  the  life,  sayings,  and 
doings  of  Apollonius,  we  find  more  that  conforms  to 
stoicism  than  any  other  philosophy,  and  by  association, 
sympathy,  and  utterances  he  was  a  stoic.  Some  of  the 
noblest  characters  of  antiquity  were  stoics ;  Marcus 
Aurelius  (a.  D.  130)  was  the  most  consummate  produc¬ 
tion  of  this  philosophy,  and  it  was  introduced  to  him 
through  the  writings  of  Apollonius  of  Tyana.  Aurelius 
was  as  virtuous  a  man  as  ever  appeared  on  earth. 
“  From  Apollonius,”  said  Aurelius,  “  I  have  learned 
freedom  of  will  and  understanding,  steadiness  of  pur¬ 
pose,  and  to  look  to  nothing  else,  not  even  for  a 
moment,  except  to  reason.”  Eutropius,  in  his  abridg¬ 
ment  of  Roman  history,  says  Marcus  Aurelius  was 
trained  in  his  philosophy  by  Apollonius  of  Chalcedon.3 

Gibbon  says  :  “  A  superstitious  reverence  for  the 
countrymen  of  Apollonius  caused  Claudius  Aurelian 


1  Eusebius  casts  doubts  upon  the 
miracles  of  Apollonius  ;  yet  the 
early  Christians  did  not  deny  them. 
Celsus  attributed  the  miracles  of 
Jesus  to  sorcery,  which  he  said  “  in¬ 
fluenced  only  the  minds  of  the 
ignorant  and  immoral.”  Origen  re¬ 
plied  that,  in  order  to  convince  him¬ 
self  to  the  contrary,  he  has  only  to 
read  the  memoirs  of  Apollonius,  by 
Mseragenes,  who  declares  him  to  be 


both  a  philosopher  and  sorcerer ; 
and  yet  he  swayed  the  minds  of  the 
most  learned. 

2  The  History  and  Antiquities  of 
the  Doric  Race ,  by  C.  O.  Muller, 
vol.  ii.  p.  180. 

3  Theophratus,  Charac teres,  Mar- 
ci  Antonini,  Commentarif  Epicteti 
Dissertationes  ab  Ariano  Literis 
Mandates,  Frag?nenta  et  Enchirid¬ 
ion.  Greek  and  Latin  (Didot,  1842). 


48 


APOLLONIUS 


(a.  D.  273)  to  treat  with  lenity  the  conquered  city  of 
Tyana.”  1  Marcus  Aurelius  has  been  charged  by  Chris¬ 
tians  with  causing  persecutions,  political  and  religious. 
In  consideration  of  his  integrity  and  sense  of  justice, 
these  charges  would  seem  to  be  untrue.  It,  however, 
is  certain  that  he  examined  into  charges  against  per¬ 
sons  accused  with  an  earnestness  and  honesty  of  pur¬ 
pose  never  before  known  by  any  Roman  ruler;  and 
also  that  he  sentenced  reluctantly  and  with  the  utmost 
lenity.  “  I  implore  you,”  said  he  to  the  Senate,  “  to 
keep  my  mercy  and  your  own  unstained.  I  beg  that 
no  one  be  put  to  death,  and  that  the  banished  be  re¬ 
called  and  the  fines  remitted  ;  would  that  I  could  also 
bid  you  restore  the  dead.”  2  Marcus  Aurelius  died  in 
camp  near  where  Vienna  now  stands,  some  say  Bel¬ 
grade  (a.  D.  180).  When  dying  he  said  to  his  friends 
around  him,  “  Quid  me  fletis,  et  non  magis  de  pesti- 
lentia  et  communi  morte  cogitatis?”  He  answered  his 
last  attendant  with  these  words,  “  Turn  to  the  rising 
sun,  for  I  am  setting.”  3  While  at  Ahgae  Apollonius 
heard  of  the  death  of  his  father.  He  immediately 
hastened  to  Tyana,  and  with  his  own  hands  interred 
him  near  the  tomb  of  his  mother,  who  had  died  shortly 
before.  The  fortune  left  by  his  father  was  considera- 


1  Vopiscus  writes,  that  as  the 
forces  of  Aurelian  were  marching 
against  Tyana,  the  citizens  having 
shut  the  gates  against  him,  incensed 
the  emperor  so  that  he  declared  that 
he  would  not  leave  a  dog  alive  in  the 
city  ;  but  the  ghost  of  Apollonius 
appeared  to  him  in  his  tent,  threat¬ 
ened  him  into  a  better  mind,  and 


for  Apollonius’s  sake  he  spared  the 
inhabitants.  —  The  Grand  Mystery 
of  Godliness ,  by  Rev.  H.  More,  p. 
15 1  (London,  1660). 

2  Vulcatii  Gallicanus, Avidius  Cas¬ 
sius,  c.  xiv.  p.  104;  also,  Euirophis, 
b.  8,  c.  xx. 

3  Castle  St.  Angelo ,  etc.,  W.  W. 
Story,  p.  18;  Reign  of  Stoics,  p.  52. 


OF  TYANA. 


49 


ble,  which  he  divided  with  his  elder  brother 1  (now 
twenty-three)  and  his  relatives."  After  his  return  to 
ALgae  he  converted  the  temple  of  Aesculapius  into  a 
Lyceum  3  and  Academy,  in  which  resounded  all  man¬ 
ner  of  philosophical  disputations.  Blount  says  :  ‘AEs- 
culapius  rejoiced  to  have  Apollonius  witness  his  cures.” 
That  is,  the  priests  of  the  temple  were  exceedingly 
glad  to  have  so  crafty  a  man  as  Apollonius  in  collu¬ 
sion  with  them ;  and,  according  to  Pausanias  and 
Strabo,  no  school  was  better  adapted  for  the  education 
of  an  impostor.4  I  hardly  think  this  applies  with  much 


1  Philostratus,  i.  13. 

2  There  are  many  events  in  the 
career  of  Apollonius  which  seem  to 
confirm  the  theory  that  he  retained 
a  sufficiency  of  his  estate  to  keep 
him  from  want.  In  his  itineraries 
there  are  accounts  of  his  borrowing 
money;  the  liquidation  of  theseloans 
must  have  been  from  private  funds. 

3  Lyceum  was  the  name  of  a 
school  erected  by  Cicero  at  Tus- 
culum ;  it  was  called  so  after  the 
school  of  Aristotle  at  Athens.  The 
Lyceum  at  Athens  was  first  built 
by  Pericles,  where  he  taught  phi¬ 
losophy.  In  imitation  of  this  Ly¬ 
ceum  at  Athens,  Apollonius  erected 
one  at  yEgse. 

4  Aesculapius  was  worshiped  as 
the  saviour  of  mankind. — C/iDeane’s 
Serpent  Worship ,  Knight’s  Priapus , 
Squier’s  Serpent  Symbol,  Ferguson’s 
Tree  and  Serpent  Worship. 

The  mint  of  the  Island  of  Cos 
produced  a  coin  wherein  Aescula¬ 
pius  was  called  the  “  Saviour”;  and 


also  on  a  coin  of  Ancyra  the  same 
type  appears.  Games  were  also 
mentioned  in  honor  of  him  as  “sav¬ 
iour,”  and  always  with  the  serpent 
about  him.  KOS. —  Numismata  An¬ 
tiquorum  silloge  populis  grcecis  mu- 
nicipiis  et  colonis  romanis  casorum , 
etc.  (Londini,  apud  David  Mortier, 
1708),  4to,  p.  168 ;  Humphrey’s  Coin 
Collector's  Manual ,  2  vols.  pp.  557" 
593 ;  Essay  Toward  a  Natural  His¬ 
tory  of  Serpents ,  by  Charles  Owen 
(London,  1742).  Another,  Head  of 
Bearded  Hercules ,  rev.  KQION, 
Crab  and  Club.  Some  of  these 
coins  had  the  heads  of  eminent  phy¬ 
sicians,  all  of  whom  were  termed 
“saviours.”  “Son  of  God”  and 
“  Saviour  ”  were  expressions  of  so 
common  application  to  men  who 
had,  or  who  imagined  they  had, 
rendered  service  to  humanity  that 
nothing  was  thought  of  it.  The 
lower  orders  of  society  believed  it, 
and  the  wise  lent  themselves  to  the 
fraud. 


7 


50- 


APOLLONIUS 


force,  inasmuch  as  he  converted  the  temple  into  a 
lyceum ;  and  he  also  on  a  former  occasion  rebuked  the 
young  Assyrian  who  came  to  the  temple  to  sacrifice 
for  the  disease  of  intemperance.1  As  a  stoic,  Apollo¬ 
nius’s  name  must  be  associated  with  the  noblest  names 
of  antiquity ;  and  of  the  five  emperors  who  succeeded 
Domitian,  from  A.  D.  98  to  A.  D.  193,  namely,  Nerva, 
Trajan,2  Hadrian,  Antoninus  Pius,  Aurelius,  and  Corn- 
modus,  all  were  pupils  of  stoicism, —  indeed  Nerva  had 
been  banished  by  Domitian  as  a  stoic.  Hadrian  was  a 
pupil  of  Epictetus.  Rev.  Richard  C.  Trench,  Archbishop 
of  Dublin,3  says  :  “  The  stoic  porch  was  the  last 

refuge  and  citadel  of  freedom.  During  the  last  cent¬ 
ury  of  the  republic  every  patriotic  statesman  was 
either  a  stoic  or  an  admirer  of  stoicism.”  4  And  Lecky5 
says  “  that  in  the  Roman  empire  almost  every  charac¬ 
ter,  almost  every  effort  in  the  cause  of  liberty,  ema¬ 
nated  from  the  ranks  of  stoicism.”  We  therefore  find 
Apollonius  an  important  factor  in  the  succession  of  a 


1  At  this  period  (a.  d.  25)  Pontius 
Pilate  was  appointed  procurator  in 
Judea,  with  whom  the  Jews  were 
displeased,  and  great  and  incessant 
tumults  arose  in  consequence  at 
Jerusalem.  It  was  a  hot-bed  of 
insurrection,  and  continued  so  dur¬ 
ing  the  procuratorship  of  Pilate, 
who  managed  to  maintain  himself, 
however,  for  ten  years.  The  his¬ 
tory  of  this  period  is  full  of  incident. 
Many  of  the  leaders  in  insurrec¬ 
tion  Pilate  caused  to  be  put  to  death, 
whose  names  have  not  been  histori¬ 
cally  announced.  Philo  Judaeus 
loads  bis  memory  with  obloquy. 


2  Centuries  later,  when  Pope 
Gregory  the  Great,  on  reading  how 
Trajan  halted  his  army  to  do  justice 
to  a  poor  widow,  was  moved  to  pray 
that  this  one  heathen  might  be  de¬ 
livered  from  the  hell  which  held  all 
of  the  rest. 

3  In  four  lectures  on  Plutarch,  his 
Life,  his  Lives,  and  his  Morals 
(Macmillan  &  Co.,  1873),  p.  92. 

4  Niebuhr’s  Vortrage  uber  Romes 
die  Geschichte,  vol.  iii.  p.  60. 

5  History  European  Morals,  2  vols. 
(N.  Y.  1869),  vol.  i.  p.  134. — Cf. 
The  Similitudes  of  Detnophilus,  or 
Golden  Sentences  of  Democratus. 


OF  TYANA. 


51 


race  of  the  noblest  men  the  world  has  ever  produced. 
And  during  his  own  age  many  were  confessedly  in¬ 
debted  to  his  teachings  for  the  purity  of  their  lives. 
Even  Archbishop  Trench  was  reluctantly  forced  to  this 
confession,  that  “  the  stoic  school  was  in  some  sort  the 
noblest  school  of  philosophy  in  the  ancient  world,  and 
had  never  shown  itself  so  nobly  as  in  the  evil  times  of 
the  empire.”  The  pages  of  Tacitus  show  that  the  great 
example  of  Cato  was  nobly  imitated  by  other  Roman 
stoics.1  The  noble  Cleanthes,2  who  succeeded  Zeno 
(b.  c.  260),  left  us  a  most  charming  relic  of  stoic  ethics 
in  the  lofty  hymn  to  Jupiter,  from  which  Paul  quoted 
on  Mars  Hill.3 

The  emperors  Tiberius,  Caligula,  Claudius,  Nero,  and 
Domitian  found  their  despotism  opposed  by  the  stoics, 
with  a  courage  which  very  often  rose  to  martyrdom. 
Such  men  as  Cornutus,  Priscus,  Rufus,  Apollonius,  and 
others  dared  look  their  masters  (in  brute  force),  in  the 
face,  and  say,  “Your  works  are  evil  and  corrupt.  It  is 
for  us  to  tell  the  truth  and  for  you  to  slay.”4  During 


1  The  Reign  of  the  Stoics  (Hol¬ 
land),  p.  141. 

2  History  Classical  Greek  Litera¬ 
ture ,  vol.  i.  p.  33. 

3  Of  his  many  writings,  there  is 
only  one  remaining. — Cf.  Literary 
Recreations  (Rev.  W.  Curd,  1811), 
p.  10;  also,  Reign  of  the  Stoics  (F. 
M.  Holland),  p.  225  ;  Classical  Lit- 
erature  :  Greek ,  Sanscrit ,  and  Ro¬ 
man,  by  C.  A.  White,  p.  220. 

Chrysippus,  son  of  Apollonius 
Tarsus,  a  native  of  Soli,  a  city  of 
Cilicia,  afterward  Pompeilis,  was  a 
stoic  and  a  pupil  of  Cleanthes.  He 


wrote  several  hundred  volumes,  and 
was  the  greatest  logician  that  ever 
lived. 

4  Pagan  antiquity,  says  Lecky,  has 
left  us  no  grander  example  than  that 
of  Epictetus,  who,  while  sounding 
the  very  abyss  of  human  misery,  and 
looking  forward  to  death  as  simple 
decomposition,  was  yet  so  filled  with 
a  sense  of  divine  presence  that  his 
life  was  one  continued  hymn  to  Prov¬ 
idence.  The  great  stoic  himself 
says,  “What  else  can  I  do,  a  lame 
old  man,  but  sing  hymns  to  the 
gods  ?  ” — Reign  of  the  Stoics,  p.  32. 


52 


APOLLONIUS 


the  reigns  of  three  of  the  above-named  emperors,  in  the 
words  of  Tacitus,  “  Virtue  was  a  sentence  of  death.” 
At  no  period  had  brute  force  more  completely  tri¬ 
umphed  ;  in  none  was  the  thirst  for  material  advantage 
more  intense,  or  vice  more  ostentatiously  glorified.  Yet 
in  the  midst  of  all  these  circumstances,  the  stoics  taught 
a  philosophy  which  was  in  no  sense  a  compromise,  not 
an  attempt  to  moderate  the  popular  excesses,  but 
which  in  its  austere  sanctity  demanded  their  complete 
prohibition  ;  this  course  was  the  extreme  antithesis  of 
what,  according  to  prevailing  examples,  their  interests 
would  dictate.  And  these  men  were  no  impassioned 
fanatics,  fired  with  the  prospects  of  coming  glory  or  the 
selfish  hope  of  future  personal  rewards, —  they  were 
men  from  whose  motives  of  action  the  belief  in  the 
immortality  of  the  soul  was  resolutely  excluded ;  their 
impulsion  to  virtuous  acts  was  for  virtue’s  sake.  The 
later  philosophy  impels  to  good  acts  through  promises 
of  future  reward.  Pliny,1  perhaps  the  greatest  of  all 
Roman  scholars,  admitting  the  sentiments  of  all  that  is 
implied  in  the  school  of  Epicurus  relating  to  future  life, 
says,  that  “  it  is  a  form  of  madness,  a  puerile  and  per¬ 
nicious  illusion.”2 

Panaetius,  the  founder  of  Roman  stoicism,  maintained 
that  the  soul  perished  with  the  body,  and  his  opinions 
were  followed  by  Epictetus  and  Cornutus.3 

1  Sallust,  Catilina,  etc.,  C.  li.  “  Neque  igitur  mors  est 

2  See  that  most  impressive  pas-  Quam  degendem  natura  animi  mortalis  hab- 

■*-  A  etur y  9 

sage  ( History ,  Nat.,  vii.  56):  The 

notion  of  the  sleep  of  annihilation  3  Cf.  De  Officiis  de  Ciceronis , 
as  the  happiest  end  of  man,  is  the  Sjoico  Diss.  Lugd.  B.  (1802),  vol.  iii. 
favorite  thought  with  Lucretius,  p.  567;  cf.  Stobseus  sxXopu  ^oor/tca 
Thus,  (1575),  fol.  lib.  I,  c.  Iii. 


OF  TYANA. 


53 


Seneca  contradicts  himself  on  this  subject  Marcus 
Aurelius  never  rose  beyond  a  vague  and  mournful 
aspiration.1 

It  may  be  interesting  just  here  as  showing  more  fully 
the  bent  of  the  stoic  mind  morally,  to  which  Apollo¬ 
nius  seemed  to  have  so  strong  an  affinity,  to  quote  a 
few  of  their  aphorisms.  Stoicism  was  a  pure  moral¬ 
ity  stripped  of  all  absurd  divine  sanction,  and  was  in 
the  main  pretty  much  the  same  as  modern  atheism. 
And,  while  doubt  is  expressed  in  the  writings  of  some 
of  the  commentators  on  Apollonius,  whether  or  not  he 
fully  accepted  the  creed  of  atheistic  stoicism,  I  think 
there  is  a  residuum  about  him  which  implies  more  than 
they  credit  him  for ;  and  then  those  with  whom  he  is 
classed,  his  associates  and  admirers,  all  strongly  draw  us  in 
that  direction.  Epictetus  and  Antoninus  were  originally 
explicit  upon  this  head.  “  Whither  do  you  go  ”  (in¬ 
quired  the  former)  “  at  death  ?  Nowhere  to  your  hurt : 
you  return  whence  you  came  —  to  a  friendly  consocia¬ 
tion  with  your  kindred  elements.  That  which  is  of  the 
nature  of  fire  in  your  composition  returns  to  fire ;  that 
which  is  of  earth  to  earth ;  that  which  is  of  air  to  air  ; 
that  which  is  of  water  to  water.”  For  the  professors  of 
this  philosophy  there  was  no  first  cause,  no  providence, 
no  supreme  governor  of  the  world.2 

“The  stoic  rule  of  life  is  to  be  useful  and  helpful,  and 

1  History  of  European  Morals  from  a  long  line  before  us.  The  same  at 

Augustus  to  Charlemagne  (Lecky),  Athens  as  at  Antioch  and  Smyrna, 
p.  102.  and  all  the  other  seats  of  learning 

2  G.  R.  Cleig,  M.  A.,  The  Great  and  fashion,  and  for  several  centuries 
Problem,  Can  it  be  Solved?  p.  175.  the  characteristic  features  of  their 
In  the  pages  of  Philostratus  and  philosophy  scarcely  change.  “Philo- 
Eunapius  we  see  the  sophists  pass  in  stratus.” 


54 


APOLLONIUS 


not  to  look  after  ourselves  alone,  but  after  the  individual 
and  common  interests  of  mankind.”  1 

“  Everything  transpires  according  to  law.”  2 
“  It  is  a  foolish  thing  to  pray  for  that  good  disposi¬ 
tion  which  you  are  able  to  give  yourself.”4 

“  Shun  that  philosophy  which  pretends  to  be  inspired 
by  the  gods,  for  they  who  tell  you  such  foolish  false¬ 
hoods  about  the  deity  fill  with  self-conceit.”  4 

“  What  is  God  ?  The  mind  of  the  universe.  Where 
is  he  ?  All  that  you  see,  and  all  that  you  don’t  see.” 1 

“  He  who  is  at  peace  with  himself  is  at  peace  with 
the  gods.”  1 

“  He  is  best  and  purest  who  pardons  others  as  if  he 
sinned  himself,  daily,  but  who  avoids  sinning  as  if  he  had 
never  pardoned.”  3 

“  We  follow  our  natural  dispositions  when  we  do 
good.”  1 

“  First  endeavor  to  gain  the  knowledge  of  yourself; 
when  this  knowledge  is  obtained  consult  the  gods,  if 
you  please,  but  in  my  judgment  you  will  need  no  oracle 
if  you  arrive  at  an  understanding.”  5 
“  Purity  is  part  of  man’s  nature.”  3 
“  The  chief  end  of  a  natural  creature  is  social  life.”  2 


1  Seneca.  2  Aurelian. 

3  Epictetus.  4  Philostratus. 

6  Dion  Chrysostom. 

There  was  another  system  of 
ethics  said  to  have  been  extant  at  the 
same  period.  “  If  any  man  would 
be  my  disciple  he  must  hate  his  own 
father,  mother,  wife,  and  children, 
brothers  and  sisters  ” ;  or,  “  If  any 
man  come  to  me  and  hate  not  his 
father,”  etc.,  etc.  And  which 


charges  its  disciples,  “  Into  whatever 
city  ye  shall  enter,  and  they  receive 
you  not,  go  your  ways,  shake  off 
the  dust  of  your  feet.  But  I  say 
unto  you,  it  shall  be  more  toler¬ 
able  in  that  day  for  Sodom  than  for 
that  city.”  “Depart  from  me,  ye 
cursed,  into  everlasting  fire,”  etc., 
etc. — Jesus. 

And  contrast  the  Jewish  and 
Christian  God  with  the  pagan’s  god. 


OF  TYANA. 


55 


“  Even  a  bad  reputation  nobly  earned  is  an  acquisi¬ 
tion.”  1 

“  Those  who  are  over-anxious  about  the  future  do 
not  properly  use  the  present.”  2 

“  Cause  depends  upon  cause,  and  all  public  and  pri¬ 
vate  affairs  are  carried  by  a  long  chain  of  events.”  2 

“  How  to  receive  favors  from  my  friends  without 
either  feeling  humbled  or  acting  ungratefully,  and  that 
I  should  not  disregard  a  friend  who  finds  fault  even 
unreasonably,  but  strive  to  restore  him  to  his  usual 
disposition.  These  were  among  my  lessons  from 
Apollonius.”  3 

“Nature  endears  man  to  man.”1 

It  was  Cicero  who  first  uttered  the  word  “  Human- 
itas.”  With  him  there  was  no  Jew  or  gentile,  no 
Greek  or  barbarian.  It  was  he  who  pronounced  the 
immortal  words,  “  Charitas  Generis  Humanse  ”  and 
“  Totius  Complexus  Gentis  Humanae.”  He  had  no  clas¬ 
sification, —  no  sinners,  no  saints,  no  heirs  of  glory,  or 
inheritors  of  damnation.4 

“The  world  is  my  country.”2 


“  I,  the  Lord  thy  God,  am  a  jealous 
God,  visiting  the  iniquities  of  the 
fathers  upon  the  children  unto  the 
third  and  fourth  generation  of  them 
that  hate  me.”  Contrast  this  with 
the  words  put  by 'the  Hindu  in  the 
mouth  of  Brahma  :  “  I  am  the  same 
to  all  mankind.  They  who  hon¬ 
estly  serve  other  gods  involuntarily 
worship  me.  I  am  he  who  partaketh 
of  all  worship,  and  I  am  the  reward 
of  all  worshipers.” 

1  Cicero.  2  Seneca. 

3  Marcus  Aurelius,  Meditations , 


b.  i.  secs.  8-13;  see  also  Thoughts 
of  the  Emperor  (M.  A.  Antoninus), 
translated  by  George  Long  (1869); 
also,  Fronto,  Marcus  Aurelius  et 
Theoph7'atus ;  also,  Lactantii  Divin- 
arum  Institutionum  Contra  Gentes, 
lib.  5,  c.  iii.  (Anno  1660). 

4  “  Go  not  into  the  way  of  the 
Gentiles,  and  into  any  city  of  the 
Samaritans  enter  ye  not,  but  go 
rather  to  the  lost  sheep  of  the 
house  of  Israel.  I  am  not  sent  but 
unto  the  lost  sheep  of  the  house  of 
Israel.” — Jesus. 


56 


APOLLONIUS 


“To  do  good  my  religion.”1 

“  Under  whatever  government  his  lot  is  cast  man  has 
the  family,  the  duties  of  a  citizen  to  occupy  him,  and 
his  philosophy  to  console  him.”  2 

And  Herodes  Atticus,  a  man  who  combined  more 
learning,  persuasive  eloquence,  and  humanity  than  any 
man  of  his  period,  when  accosted  in  the  midst  of  a 
group  of  friends  by  an  impostor  in  the  name  of  stoicism, 
for  something  wherewith  to  buy  bread,  answered :  Be 
he  what  he  may,  let  us  give  him  something,  if  not  to 
him  as  a  man,  at  least  because  we  are  men.  “  Tan- 
quam  homines  non  tanquam  homine.”3 

Aristotle  was  once  blamed  for  helping  a  man  who 
did  not  deserve  it.  “  It  was  not  the  man  whom  I 
helped,”  said  he;  “it  was  suffering  humanity.”4 

Of  this  school  of  practical  wisdom  and  morals  Apol¬ 
lonius  was  a  distinguished  chief.  He  maintained  that 
the  only  good  was  moral  excellence,  the  only  true 
satisfaction,  independence  of  external  circumstances ; 
and  consequently  held  that  wealth  was  an  obstacle  to 
the  development  of  virtue;  and  the  whole  of  his  life  was 


1  Thomas  Paine. 

2  Apollonius  of  Tyana,  cf.  Hieroclis 
philosophi  stoici  in  A  nreos  Pithagorce 
versus  Commentarii  (1551) ;  Defense 
du  Paganisme ,  par  l’empereur  J  ulien, 
avec  des  disputations  et  des  notes ,  par 
le  Marquis  d’Argars  (Berlin,  1766). 

3  Philostratus,  Vi  tee  Sop  hist  arum  ; 
Bur  igny,  Stir  la  vie  dP I  erodes  A  tticus. 

4  And  while  we  may,  even  in  this 
enlightened  age,  point  with  pride  to 
these  unparalleled  models  of  moral 
excellence,  we  may  refer  with  equal 
raptures,  as  lovers  of  a  common  hu¬ 


manity,  to  those  immortal  pagans 
and  stoics,  Socrates,  Plato,  and 
Aristotle.  Who  has  not  acknowl¬ 
edged  the  great  stagirite  as  a  mas¬ 
ter  ?  Who  has  not  learned  history 
from  Thucydides  and  Herodotus  ? 
Who  can  say  in  all  respects  that  he 
is  superior  to  Xenophon  ?  Where 
is  the  orator  to  take  the  place  of  De¬ 
mosthenes  or  Cicero  ?  What  mod¬ 
ern  dramatist  has  excelled  yEschylus, 
Sophocles,  or  Euripides  ?  In  sculpt¬ 
ors’  art,  who  bears  the  prize  from 
Phidias,  Polycletus,or  Callimachus  ? 


OF  TYANA. 


57 


spent,  and  the  whole  of  his  teachings  are  founded,  on 
the  idea  that  all  men  are  called  to  receive  and  practice 
truth.  He  speaks  and  acts  as  a  reformer  and  lover  of 
humanity  everywhere, —  on  the  banks  of  the  Euphrates, 
the  Nurbudda,  the  Nile,  in  Spain,  and  in  Ethiopia.  He 
had  no  narrow  notions  of  nationality,  no  local  clique 
to  serve;  he  came  to  no  chosen  people,  but  to  all 
mankind.1  As  he  grew  up  to  manhood  he  was  hailed  as 


the  son  of  Jupiter,  and  was 

1  I  can  scarcely  regard  that  writer 
honest  who,  being  familiar  with  all 
the  vagaries  of  the  Greek,  Roman, 
and  Hebrew  fable  and  mythology, 
passes  over  without  one  word  of 
comment  (in  a  moral  discussion) 
that  system  of  ethics  which  pro¬ 
duced  such  men  as  Cato,  Aurelian, 
Seneca,  Hadrian,  Trajan,  and  Nerva, 
whose  lives  and  practices  were  mas¬ 
terpieces  of  moral  excellence  for 
their  time ;  to  delve  amid  the  abom¬ 
inations  of  Hebrew  tradition  for  a 
miserable  apology  of  a  moral  code, 
and  even  that  a  starved  exotic  bor¬ 
rowed  from  the  pagan  ethics.  When 
I  see  men  take  so  much  trouble  to 
live  in  darkness  and  shed  darkness 
about  them ;  when  I  see  men  hus¬ 
banding  the  little  light  struggling 
to  them  through  a  knot-hole  and  re¬ 
fusing  the  glorious  privileges  ten¬ 
dered  to  them  of  basking  in  a 
sunshine  as  boundless  as  the  hori¬ 
zon,  I  can  scarcely  deem  them  hon¬ 
est  in  their  professed  ignorance. 

“  School-masters  and  professors 
in  literature  are  in  affinity  with  man¬ 
ifest  idolatry  and  sin.” — Tertullian’s 
Christian  Ethics. 

8 


so  declared  by  every  oracle 

“  It  is  a  great  thing  to  live  in  truth 
and  justice  with  kind  feelings  even 
to  the  lying  and  unjust. 

“  It  is  peculiarly  human  to  love 
even  those  who  do  wrong.” — Stoic 
Ethics. 

There  is  no  stint  of  these  tenets  ; 
volume  after  volume  of  them  exist, 
and  they  are  the  utterances  of  men 
as  pure  as  their  literature.  They 
are  the  noblest  and  purest  books  of 
antiquity.  The  enemies  against 
which  stoicism  contended  with  fear¬ 
ful  odds  were  corrupt  princes,  po¬ 
litical  vampires,  and  the  fanaticism 
of  a  growing  spiritual  religion  based 
on  miracle.  There  are  those  who 
deride  the  oracles  of  Apollonius’s 
incarnation,  and  who  would  ridicule 
to  scorn  the  oracle  of  the  Pythoness 
of  Delphi,  extorted  by  the  command 
of  Alexander  with  drawn  sword, 
“  My  child,  thou  art  invincible,”  and 
yet  revere  as  a  divine  revelation 
(oracle)  the  descent  of  the  dove,  the 
emblem  of  Dodona,  which  had 
wielded  the  political  destinies  of 
Greece  and  Lybia  for  centuries  when 
it  exclaimed,  “  This  is  my  beloved 
son  in  whom  I  am  well  pleased.” 


53 


APOLLONIUS 


of  Greece  ;  he,  in  the  meantime,  maintained  that  he 
was  simply  the  son  of  Apollonius,  a  citizen  of  Tyana. 
Nevertheless,  the  evidence  that  he  was  a  messenger, 
with  a  divine  commission,  is  entitled  to  as  much  con¬ 
sideration  as  that  of  any  of  the  various  sons  of  God 
who  have  appeared  on  earth.1  To  discuss,  however, 
the  credibility  of  miraculous  conceptions  and  births  at 
this  age  of  the  world  is  to  offer  an  insult  to  the  human 
understanding. 

Apollonius  now  determined  to  pass  five  years  in 
silence,  according  to  the  Pythagorean  code.2  This 
period  was  passed  chiefly  in  Pamphylia  and  in  Cilicia ; 
and,  although  he  traveled  through  provinces  whose 
manners  were  corrupt  and  effeminate,  and  much  needed 
reformation,  he  never  uttered  a  word,  nor  did  a  mur¬ 
mur  ever  escape  him.  The  method  he  used  in  express¬ 
ing  his  sentiments  during  his  silence  was  by  his  eyes, 
his  hands,  and  the  motion  of  his  head.3  He  never 
seemed  morose  nor  out  of  spirits,  and  always  preserved 
an  even,  placid  temper.  He  complained  that  this  life 
was  irksome,  inasmuch  only  as  he  had  many  things  to 


1  Worshiped  as  a  God. —  Banier, 
vol.  iii.  p.  430. 

2  Silence,  or  the  art  of  governing 
the  tongue,  was  a  virtue  of  such 
consequence  with  the  ancients  that 
they  deified  it.  The  Orientals  wor¬ 

shiped  it  under  the  title  of  Har- 
pocrates ;  the  Romans  also  made  it 
a  goddess,  and  called  her  Ageronia. 
The  feast  instituted  in  her  honor  was 
celebrated  on  the  21st  of  December 
every  year.  There  were  statues  rep¬ 
resenting  her  holding  her  finger  to 
her  mouth. —  The  Mythology  and 


Fables  of  the  Ancients ,  etc.  (Abbe 
Banier),  vol.  iii.  p.  135  ;  also,  His¬ 
tory  and  Antiquities  of  the  Doric 
Race ,  by  C.  O.  Muller,  from  the 
German,  by  Henry  Tufnell,  Esq., 
etc.  (London,  1839),  vol.  ii.  pp. 
184-193. 

3  Rev.  Gilbert  Austin,  in  his  in¬ 
genious  dissertation  on  Rhetorical 
Delivery,  has  adduced  the  waving 
of  Apollonius’s  hand  to  the  corn 
monopolists,  to  prove  the  effects  of 
the  eloquence  of  the  hand  without 
the  aid  of  language. 


OF  TYANA . 


59 


say  which  he  refrained  from  saying ;  that  he  heard 
many  things  of  a  disagreeable  nature  which  he  affected 
not  to  hear,  and  when  provoked  to  anger  could  only 
say  to  himself, 

“  Alas,  poor  suffering  heart,  support  the  pain 
Of  wounded  honor,  and  thy  rage  restrain.’71 

In  this  manner  he  passed  over  many  mischievous 
things  said  against  him  in  dignified  silence.  This  disci¬ 
pline  for  the  human  mind  the  great  master  Pythagoras 
fully  understood  and  comprehended,  and  hence  the 
injunction. 

Whenever  Apollonius  entered  a  town  in  a  state  of 
tumult  or  uproar  he  always  pressed  forward  into  the 
crowd,  where,  presenting  himself,  he  showed  by  his 
countenance  and  the  waving  of  his  hand  the  reproof  he 
intended  to  express,  and  all  kept  silent,  as  if  engaged 
in  the  most  mysterious  ceremonies  of  religion.  While 
residing  in  Aspendus,  a  city  of  Pamphylia,  on  the 
river  Eurymedon,  the  inhabitants  became  enraged, 
and  well  disposed  to  insurrection.  To  this  condition 
they  were  driven  for  want  of  the  necessities  of  life ;  a 
famine  prevailed  in  the  land,  and  the  monopolists  had 
hoarded  all  the  corn,  in  order  that  they  might  sell  it  at 
enormous  profits.  The  people  were  stirred  up  against 
the  Governor,  whom  they  believed  the  cause  of  their 
suffering,  and  were  about  to  burn  him  alive,  even  if  he 
were  found  at  the  feet  of  the  statue  of  Tiberius,2  which 

1  (Pope’s  rendering)  Odyssey ,  b.  Suetonius  says  this  custom  was 

xx.  1.  18.  carried  to  so  great  an  extent  that  it 

2  Tacitus  says  that  the  statue  of  was  a  capital  offense  for  a  man  to 

Tiberius  was  a  sanctuary,  where  beat  his  slave  who  had  an  image 
even  the  assassin  was  protected. —  of  Caesar  in  his  pocket. — Tiberius , 
Annals ,  b.  iii.  c.  36.  c.  52. 


6o 


APOLLONIUS 


was  then  more  feared  than  all  the  gods,  even  Jupiter 
Olympus. 

Apollonius  approached  the  Governor,  and  asked 
him,  by  the  waving  of  his  hand,  the  cause  which  ex¬ 
cited  the  multitude,  and  of  what  duty  he,  as  a  governor, 
had  been  remiss  ?  “  In  none,”  replied  the  Governor  ; 

“  and  I  think  I  could  appease  them  if  they  would  hear 
me.”  Then,  turning  to  the  multitude,  Apollonius  by 
a  sign  made  them  understand  that  the  Governor  must 
be  heard;  on  which  an  immediate  silence  ensued,  the 
people  acting  as  if  in  awe  of  Apollonius.  When  the  Gov¬ 
ernor  saw  this  he  took  courage,  and  commenced  haran¬ 
guing  the  people,  informing  them  who  were  the  guilty 
persons  who  had  hoarded  up  the  corn,  and  produced 
the  present  calamity ;  he  also  informed  them  where  the 
corn  was  concealed.  When  the  Aspendians  heard  this 
they  began  organizing  for  the  purpose  of  breaking 
open  the  repositories,  and  taking  the  corn  by  force. 
Apollonius  admonished  them  not  to  act  hastily,  that 
their  demands  would  be  complied  with  without  the 
commission  of  crime.  He  advised  them  first  to  sum¬ 
mon  the  monopolizers,  which  they  resolved  to  do. 
As  soon  as  the  monopolizers  arrived,  he  was  sorely 
tempted  to  break  through  his  silence,  so  great  was  the 
provocation  to  administer  a  rebuke  to  these  unworthy 
merchants.1  However,  he  respected  the  law  of  silence, 
and  wrote  his  reproof  on  a  tablet,  informing  them  of 
the  excited  condition  in  which  he  had  found  the 
people,  and  the  great  risk  they  ran  in  thus  exposing 
themselves  to  the  fury  of  a  hungry  mob.  As  soon  as 

1  Vie  d  Apollonius  de  Tyane,  par  given  in  English,  by  Charles  Blount, 
Philostrate,  with  the  Commentaries,  vol.  i.  p.  248. 


OF  TYANA. 


6l 


the  speculators  saw  and  understood  the  position  of 
affairs,  and  the  extremity  to  which  the  people  were 
driven,  they  were  but  too  happy  to  purchase  their  per¬ 
sonal  safety,  and  that  of  their  property,  by  opening 
their  store-houses,  and  filling  the  markets  with  corn.1 

As  soon,  however,  as  Apollonius  had  fulfilled,  ac¬ 
cording  to  the  Pythagorean  law,  his  period  of  silence, 
he  journeyed  into  Issus  and  Alexandria,  and  came  to 
Antioch  in  Syria,  surnamed  the  Great,  situated  on  the 
Orontes,  and  which  is  classed  by  Apollonius  as  the 
third  city  in  importance  of  the  Roman  empire.2  At 


1  Quelque  apparence  qu’il  ait 
que  tout  cela  est  de  l’invention  de 
Philostrate,  en  supposant  que  la 
chose  est  arrivee  comme  il  la  raconte, 
elle  prouve  seulement  qu’Apollone 
etoit  un  homme  adroit  et  prudent, 
et  qui  avoit  des  manieres  propres  a 
s’insinuer  dans  l’esprit  du  peuple. 
— Du  Pin,  F Histoire  DApollone. 

2  There  is  no  doubt  but  that  in 
the  study  of  Greek  archaeology  we 
are  more  indebted  to  Greek  coins 
than  any  other  one  thing,  the  extent 
and  variety  of  which  are  marvelous. 
They  were  issued  in  every  little 
town,  in  every  corner  of  the  Greek 
world,  and  they  are  full  of  informa¬ 
tion  as  to  ancient  religious  cults, 
manners,  and  arts.  M.  de  Long- 
perier  says :  “  Coins  are  serious 
monuments  of  public  use,  bearing 
on  them  indications  of  time  and 
place  either  quite  exact,  or  at  least 
quite  approximate ;  this  is  an  im¬ 
mense  advantage  over  all  other 
monuments.  By  studying  the  types, 
the  style,  the  inscriptions  of  coins, 


we  may  gain  a  key  to  many  other 
antiquities.”  The  coins  of  Antioch 
are  the  most  important,  next  to  the 
Alexandrian,  known  to  us ;  not, 
however,  in  their  variety,  but  in 
chronological  importance.  They 
are  principally  of  bronze,  copper, 
and  baser  metal,  few  only  in  silver. 
From  the  Seleucido,  B.  c.  37;  the 
Pharsalian  era,  B.  C.  38  to  B.  C.  22 ; 
the  Actian  era,  B.  C.  6  to  A.  D.  13, 
and  the  Caesarian  era,  from  A.  D.  55 
to  the  third  century,  and  even  of 
later  date,  the  coins  of  Antioch 
prove  that  city  to  have  remained 
during  that  period  a  pagan  center. 
The  types  represented  on  these 
coins  are  the  city  of  Antioch  per¬ 
sonified  as  a  female  figure  seated 
on  a  high  rock,  from  under  which 
issues  the  river  Orontes,  personified 
in  the  form  of  a  youth  in  the  atti¬ 
tude  of  swimming.  This  legend 
seems  fully  to  establish  the  pagan 
era"  of  the  city  of  Antioch.  While 
these  are  interesting  and  significant 
archaeological  facts,  they  are  not 


62 


APOLLONIUS 


Antioch  he  entered  the  temple  of  Apollo  Daphneus, 
where  it  is  said  that  Daphne,  the  daughter  of  the 
river  Ladon,  was  metamorphosed  into  a  tree,  and  her 
statue  was  held  in  high  estimation  here.1  When  he 
entered  the  temple  and  perceived  that  no  rational 
worship  was  performed  there,  but  everything  was  in 
barbarous  neglect,  he  turned  his  eyes  to  the  Ladon 
river  and  cried,  “  Not  only  was  thy  daughter  changed, 
but  thou  thyself,  from  having  been  a  Greek  and  an 
Arcadian,  art  become  a  barbarian.” 

When  it  pleased  Apollonius,  he  discoursed  to  the 
people  of  Antioch,  but  he  avoided  promiscuous  multi¬ 
tudes  and  places  of  public  resort,  for  he  disliked  their 
rude  and  disorderly  manners ;  he  characterized  them  as 
clowns.  But  he  admitted  with  pleasure  into  his  con¬ 
versations  all  who  were  of  good  behavior,  and  yet  he 


very  important  as  historical  testi¬ 
mony,  and  would  have  no  signifi¬ 
cance  at  all  were  it  not  that  the 
records  of  Antioch  have  been  de¬ 
stroyed  so  thoroughly.  There  were 
ancient  coins  of  Antioch  with  the 
head  of  Pallas  and  the  owl,  like 
those  of  Athens,  with  whom  they 
claim  a  common  descent.  There 
are  a  few  other  types,  as  :  A  Ram 
Running,  Head  turned  toward  a 
Crescent  and  Stars ;  these  are  nu¬ 
merous.  The  art  is  rude  and  is 
wanting  in  Hellenic  refinement. 
The  principal  abbreviations  on  the 
Roman  coins  of  Antioch  are  :  A.  M. 
B.,  Antiochise  Moneta  Officina  Se- 
cunda;  A.  N.  b.  or  A.  N.  t.  b.,  An- 
tiochise  Officina  Secunda;  A.  N.  F.  F., 
Annum  Novum  Felicem  Faustum  ; 


A.  N.  T.  P.,  Antiochige  Percussa;  A. 
N.  t.  S.,  Antiochige  Signata. — Hum¬ 
phrey’s  Coin  Collector's  Manual ,  2 
vols.  (London),  vol.  ii.  p.  552. 

There  was  nothing  to  prevent  the 
Christians  of  Antioch,  if  their  histo¬ 
rians  are  not  in  error,  to  have  dis¬ 
continued  striking  pagan  coins,  and 
coining  money  with  the  emblems  of 
their  own  religion,  a  thing  which 
did  not  take  place  until  several  hun¬ 
dred  years  after. 

1  This  temple  was  about  thirty 
stadia  from  Antioch,  and  connected 
by  the  Heraclean  Way,  which  passed 
through  the  gardens  with  hot  springs 
and  fountains,  medicinal  wells,  etc. 
Apollonius  says  :  “  Everything  was 
salubrious  and  beautiful.  ’ ’  Here  was 
also  the  temple  of  Apollo  and  Diana. 


OF  TYANA. 


63 


admired  and  spoke  in  glowing  terms  of  their  beautiful 
city,  noted  for  elegant  streets  and  dwellings  and  porti¬ 
coes.  One  magnificent  street  traversed  the  entire  city 
from  west  to  east,  about  twenty-four  stadia  in  length, 
partially  covered,  and  called  the  stoa  Herodes.  On 
this  was  located  the  temple  of  Jupiter  Capitolinus,  now 
being  enlarged.  It  was  not  finished  until  Trajan.1 
The  people  of  Antioch  at  the  time  were  under  Caesar’s 
displeasure,  and  as  a  punishment  he  had  by  an  edict 
closed  the  hot  baths.  Apollonius  said  that  by  a  for¬ 
feiture  of  this  right  for  their  wickedness  the  king  had 
unwittingly  taken  means  for  preserving  their  health 
and  prolonging  their  lives ;  for  he  believed  hot  bath¬ 
ing  beyond  a  moderate  indulgence  detrimental  to 
health.  “All  these  things,  and  many  others  not  here 
enumerated  in  consequence  of  the  vagueness  of  the 
tradition  and  a  want  of  proper  data,”  says  Philostratus, 
“  were  collected  from  monuments  and  records  of  cities, 
temples,  and  from  tradition.”2 

The  state  of  the  country  under  the  artful  and  sus¬ 
picious  Tiberius,  and  the  infamous  Sejanus,  was  such 
that  all  persons  professing  philosophy  or  virtue  were 
looked  upon  and  treated  as  enemies  of  the  empire.3 
The  eloquent  and  accomplished  stoic  philosopher  Atta- 
lus,  of  whom  Seneca  was  a  pupil,  had  been  banished 
through  the  influence  of  Sejanus;  Drusus  had  been 
permitted  to  die  of  poison,  and  the  virtuous  Cordus, 

1  Ovid’s  Metamorphoses,  lib.  i.  ;  (1690);  Trajecti  ad  Rhenum,  vol.  i. 

Chas.  Blount,  vol.  i.  p.  62 ;  cf.  Caji  p.  759. 

Suetonii  Tranquilli  Opera  et  in  ilia  2  Philostratus  Vita,  p.  30. 
Commentarius,  Samuelis  Pitisci.  3  Cf.  Suetonii  Tranquilli.  Ti- 
Quo  Antiquitates  Romance,  turn  ab  berius ,  Nero,  Ccesar,  vol.  i.  p. 
Interpretibus  Doctissimis,  etc.,  etc.  561. 


64 


APOLLONIUS 


historian  and  stoic,  who  had  written  the  history  of 
Rome  during  the  reign  of  Augustus,  which  gave  him 
immortality,  had  just  been  doomed  to  die,  and  his  work, 
which  was  then  very  popular  and  largely  circulated 
among  the  learned,  ordered  to  be  burned  by  the 
^Ediles.  His  daughter  Marcia,  however,  managed  to 
preserve  one  copy  at  the  risk  of  her  life,  which  was 
reproduced  and  multiplied.  It  is  now,  unhappily,  lost.1 
In  consequence  of  this  very  unstable  state  of  affairs  in 
the  empire,  Apollonius  was  fully  alive  to  the  necessity 
of  moving  about  with  great  caution.2 

During  the  latter  part  of  this  reign,  A.  D.  28,  however, 
Tiberius  retired  to  the  island  of  Caprese,3  which  he 
made  a  nest  of  impurity  and  debauchery.  He  had 
ingeniously  contrived  apartments  especially  adapted  to 
abominable  lewdness  to  inflame  the  languid  appetite. 
In  short,  his  foulness  is  not  fit  to  be  mentioned  or 
heard  of,  and  ought  not  to  be  credited.4  The  little  res¬ 
pite  from  his  bestial  life  was  spent  in  building  arches, 
erecting  columns,  and  in  robbing  the  whole  world  of 
art  works  to  adorn  this  island  for  the  admiration  of  pros- 


1  Memoirs  of  the  Life  of  Agrip¬ 
pina ,  wife  of  Germanicus,  by  Eliza¬ 
beth  Hamilton,  2  vols.  (London, 
1811),  yoI.  ii.  p.  246. 

Agrippina,  the  wife  of  Germani- 
cus,  had  also  been  murdered,  and 
Drusus,  her  son,  was  starved  to 
death,  A.  D.  33. 

2  This  reign  of  Tiberius,  which 
terminated,  A.  D.  37,  in  murder,  is 

especially  rich  in  coin,  and  they 

confirm  the  important  events  of  his 
reign.  They  are  of  gold,  silver, 
bronze,  and  brass.  Some  of  them 


are  of  the  greatest  historic  value, 
and  have  obtained  the  highest  rar¬ 
ity;  many  of  them  were  restored  by 
Titus,  Domitian,  and  Trajan.  The 
restored  coins  are  difficult  of  de¬ 
tection. —  Strabonis ,  xvi.  738;  Im- 
peratorum  Romanornm  numismata , 

p.  86. 

3  One  of  the  most  delightful  isl¬ 
ands  on  earth,  just  outside  the  Bay 
of  Naples.  It  had  also  been  the 
sumptuous  residence  of  Augustus. 

4  Eutropius’s  Abridgment  of  Ro¬ 
man  History. — Wilson,  b.  vii.  c.  8. 


OF  TYANA. 


65 


titutes,  thieves,  and  assassins.  This  wholesale  robbery 
of  works  of  art  and  virtu  committed  by  the  emperors 
Tiberius,  Caligula,  and  Nero  to  adorn  their  favorite 
cities  was  the  principal  cause  of  the  hatred  of  Apollonius 
to  the  Romans.  They  spared  nothing ;  statues,  books, 
columns,  shrines,  and  even  entire  temples  were  removed 
from  Greece  to  adorn  the  despised  capital.  Claudius 
afterward,  with  a  chivalry  utterly  out  of  character  for 
a  Roman  emperor,  ordered  the  celebrated  Cupid  in 
bronze,  by  Lysippus,  which  had  been  stolen  by  Calig¬ 
ula,  restored  to  its  temple  in  Thespiae.  Nero  spared 
no  place  except  Rhodes.  And  yet  so  prolific  had  been 
Greek  art  that  Pliny  says :  “  There  still  remained  at 
Athens  after  Nero’s  spoliation  three  thousand  statues 
and  nearly  as  many  at  Olympia  and  Delphi.”  1  While 
at  Capreae  (a.  D.  32)  Tiberius  became  aware  of  the 
treason  of  Sejanus;  his  villainy  he  had  never  doubted.2 
He  was  arrested  in  the  senate  chamber,  whither  he  had 
repaired  to  receive  new  honors  from  the  emperor ;  he 
was  loaded  with  chains,  and  as  he  was  carried  along  the 
streets  the  populace  became  frantic  in  their  joy  at  his 
fall ;  they  reviled  and  derided  him.3  He  was  strangled 
by  the  hands  of  the  very  executioner  he  had  so  often 
employed  in  similar  service.  The  satisfaction  of  Apol¬ 
lonius  was  great  at  this  deserved  end  of  a  most  infa- 


1  But  not  in  Athens,  nor  in  any 
part  of  Greece,  did  the  spoliation 
of  the  emperors  compare  with  the 
utter  destruction  of  works  of  art  by 
the  early  Christians  in  their  hatred 
of  idolatry.  Nero  and  Domitian 
stole  and  appropriated  them  because 
of  their  love  of  art.  The  Christians 

9 


destroyed  them  in  barbarous  ignor¬ 
ance. 

2  Tiberius  well  knew  that  no  man 
could  strike  fire  with  a  feather ;  hard 
service  required  hard  tools.  This 
was  his  reasoning  in  securing  the 
services  of  Sejanus. 

3  Suetonius,  Tiberius ,  i.  16. 


66 


APOLLONIUS 


mous  and  dreaded  tyrant.  Matters,  however,  did  not 
change  much  for  the  better,  and  Apollonius  believed  it 
safer  to  extend  rather  than  to  contract  the  distance 
from  a  ruler  of  whom  he  could  utter  no  word  of  praise, 
and  whose  infamous  life  seemed  only  spared  for  the 
commission  of  crime.1  But  all  things  must  have  an 
end,  and  Tiberius’s  licentious,  incestuous  life  closed,  A.  D. 
37,  aged  78,  and  Caligula,  his  murderer,  became  his 
successor  at  the  age  of  25.  Affairs  were  somewhat 
improved  by  this  change,  and  the  people  breathed  with 
more  freedom,  although  Caligula  was,  by  admission, 
half,  if  not  quite,  a  madman;  he  declared  “that  Jove 
had  invited  him  to  become  his  contubernalis  or  com¬ 
rade,  but  his  determination  was  to  become  Jove’s 
rival.”  He  squandered  the  vast  wealth  left  by  Tiberius, 
$85,000,000,  in  one  year.  Over  $300,000  was  spent 
in  one  supper.  Thus  the  old  corruption  was  rooting 
itself  afresh  in  Rome.2 

Apollonius,  in  the  meantime,  went  about  from  city  to 
city  and  from  temple  to  temple,  keeping  himself  well 
informed  of  all  matters  at  the  capital,  but  to  all  appear- 


1  Cf.  Suetonius  Tranquilhis ,  p. 
172,  et  seq. 

2  Caligula  often  appeared  abroad 
habited  like  a  woman,  sometimes  in 
silks ;  at  other  times  in  the  crepidae 
or  buskins,  or  in  the  sock  used 
by  women,  and  commonly  with 
a  golden  beard  fixed  to  his  chin, 
holding  a  thunderbolt  in  his  hand, 
a  trident,  or  a  caduceus,  marks  of 
distinction  belonging  to  the  gods 
only.  Sometimes,  too,  he  appeared 
in  the  habit  of  Venus.  He  wore 
very  commonly  the  triumphal  orna¬ 


ments,  even  before  his  expedition, 
and  sometimes  the  breast-plate  of 
Alexander  the  Great,  taken  out  of 
his  coffin.  He  was  so  fond  of 
singing  that  he  could  not  refrain 
in  the  theater  from  singing  with 
the  tragedians.  And  the  very  day 
on  which  he  was  slain  it  was 
thought  that  he  intended  to  take 
advantage  of  the  licentiousness  of 
the  season  and  make  his  first  ap¬ 
pearance  on  the  stage. — Suetonius 
(Bohn  ed.),  Caligulat  lib.  iv.  p. 
287. 


OF  TYANA . 


67 


ances  giving  no  attention  to  political  affairs.  Whenever 
he  visited  a  city  which  happened  to  be  of  Greek  origin 
and  was  in  possession  of  an  established  code  of  religious 
worship,  he  called  together  the  priests  and  discoursed 
to  them  on  the  nature  of  their  gods  and  the  discipline 
of  their  temples,  and  if  he  found  that  they  had  departed 
from  the  ancient  and  usual  forms  he  always  set  them 
right.  But  when  he  came  to  a  city  where  religious 
rites  and  customs  were  barbarous  and  with  immoral 
tendencies,  he  inquired  by  whom  they  were  established 
and  for  what  they  were  intended  and  in  what  manner 
they  were  observed  (A.  D.  30), 1  at  the  same  time  sug¬ 
gesting  whatever  occurred  to  him  as  better,  more  be¬ 
coming,  and  more  adapted  for  the  general  good ;  this 
he  sometimes  did  by  private  advice  to  the  priests ;  at 
others  by  public  discourses. 

Legrand  D’Aussy  says  Apollonius  was  “  Ecrivain 
profond,  orateur  eloquent,  moraliste  severe,  predicateur 
fervent,  apotre  enthousiaste  ;  cet  homme  extraordinaire 
eut  tout  ce  qui  subjugue  les  esprits,  tout  ce  qui  appelle 
la  confiance  et  l’estime,  tout  ce  qui  commande  Tadmi- 
ration.” 

Wherever  Apollonius  in  his  travels  found  devotees 
of  virtue  and  morality  associated  for  the  promotion  of 
the  true  philosophy,  he  commanded  them  to  ask  what 
they  pleased,  assuring  them  that  those  who  cultivate 
the  virtues  and  the  true  philosophy  ought  in  the  morn¬ 
ing  commune  with  the  gods  concerning  the  matters  of 

l  Strabo,  the  geographer  and  his-  and  a  stoic.  He  refers  to  the 
torian,  a  native  of  Pontus,  died  prevailing  superstitions  of  his  day. 
about  A.  D.  30.  He  was  a  grave  He  is  silent  concerning  Chris- 
and  solid  writer,  a  great  traveler,  tianity. 


68 


APOLLONIUS 


the  gods,  and  in  the  evening,  of  human  affairs.  When 
he  had  answered  all  questions  of  friends  and  talked  as 
much  as  he  deemed  sufficient  he  then  addressed  the 
multitude,  with  whom  he  always  discoursed  in  the 
evenings,  but  never  before  noon.  In  this  manner  of 
occupation  his  time  was  employed  many  years  at  An¬ 
tioch  and  surrounding  cities  up  to  A.  D.  40.1 

The  ample  means  which  Apollonius  had  secured  by 
the  death  of  his  father  gave  him  facilities  for  gratifying 
a  passion  which  had  pursued  him  from  his  youth  up,  to 
travel  in  foreign  countries,  study  their  institutions,  and 
converse  with  their  wise  men.  This  resolution  he  now 
communicated  to  his  disciples,  seven  in  number,  who 
endeavored  to  dissuade  him  from  his  design.  But  he 
had  determined  to  go,  and  giving  them  good  advice, 
commending  them  to  the  study  of  philosophy,  he  bade 
them  farewell,  and,  accompanied  by  two  faithful  and 
expert  scribes  of  his  own  family,  he  set  out  for  India, 
to  communicate  with  the  Brachmans  and  Gymnoso- 
phists,  being  by  his  own  showing  yet  a  young  man. 
Caligula,2  who  had  obtained  from  Nocereus,  son  of 


1  During  the  year  A.  D.  40  the 
Jews  of  Egypt  sent  Philo  on  an 
embassy  to  Rome  to  represent  their 
grievances  to  Caligula  (the  griev¬ 
ances  of  Alexandrian  Jews,  none 
other).  Philo  was  a  Platonist,  al¬ 
though  by  birth  and  faith  a  Jew, 
born  in  Egypt ;  he  was  a  man  of 
unblemished  character  and  a  writer 
of  great  note,  and  a  man  of  learning. 
Caligula  would  not  give  audience  to 
their  complaints,  and  Philo  with¬ 
drew.  Philo  wrote  on  all  the  extant 
religions  of  his  day  except  Christi¬ 


anity.  Pie  died  about  A.  D.  50,  hav¬ 
ing  never  heard  of  Christianity. 

2  The  coins  of  Caligula,  although 
of  elegant  workmanship,  bear  out 
the  charge  of  infamy  against  him; 
his  three  sisters,  with  whom  he  is 
said  to  have  been  criminally  inti¬ 
mate,  appear  on  nearly  all  his  coins. 
The  first  bronze  coins  of  his  reign, 
which  confirm  his  imperatorship, 
are  extremely  rare;  the  senate  called 
them  in  in  execration  of  his  mem¬ 
ory.  They  bear  the  inscription 
“  Caius  the  God.” 


OF  TYANA. 


69 


Sesostris,  king  of  Egypt,  the  obelisk  in  Heliopolis,  and 
spent  three  years  of  his  reign  in  removing  it  to  Rome 
and  setting  it  up  in  the  Vatican  Circus,  who  had  at¬ 
tempted  to  suppress  the  poems  of  Homer,  Virgil,  and 
Livy,  and  abolish  the  profession  of  law,  whose  reign 
had  been  one  continued  scene  of  debauchery,  who  as 
pontifex  maximus  (pope)  was  the  first  to  introduce  the 
servile  custom  to  Roman  citizens  of  presenting  his  foot 
to  be  kissed,  had  just  fallen  beneath  the  dagger  of  the 
tribune,  Cassius  Chaerea1  (a.  D.  41),  and  had  been 
succeeded  by  his  uncle  Claudius  at  the  age  of  fifty, 
whose  wife,  Messalina,  the  imperious  daughter  of  Ger- 
manicus,  was  a  woman  above  all  her  sex  the  most  mag¬ 
nificent  in  sin,  a  first-century  Catherine  de  Medici,  and 
who  contributed  largely  to  the  infamy  of  this  reign. 
And  although  Claudius  added  Great  Britain  and  the 
Orcades  to  the  Roman  empire  and  had  a  son  whom  he 
named  Britannicus,  his  reign  was  inauspicious  for  any 
great  achievements  to  the  welfare  of  the  Roman  people.2 


1  On  the  24th  of  January,  A.  D. 
41,  it  is  said  that  Chserea  came  up 
behind  Caligula  while  he  was  talk¬ 
ing  with  some  boys  of  noble  extrac¬ 
tion  who  had  come  to  Rome  to  act, 
and  gave  him  a  heavy  blow  on  the 
neck  with  his  sword,  crying  out  at 
the  same  time,  “  Take  this.”  That 
then  a  tribune  named  Cornelius 
Sabinus  ran  him  through  the  breast. 
As  he  lay  on  the  ground  crying  out 
that  he  was  still  alive,  the  other  con¬ 
spirators  dispatched  him  with  thirty 
wounds.  Immediately  afterward  his 
body-guard  came  running  in  and 
killed  some  of  the  conspirators 


and  also  some  senators  who  had  no 
concern  in  the  affair. —  Cf.  Sueto¬ 
nius, ,  p.  291  (Bohn  ed.,  1855);  also 
Tacitus;  also  Eutropius,  b.  vii.  c.  12. 

2  Suetonii  Opera,  vol.  ii.  p.  I 
(1590  A.  D.);  Etitropius ,  b.  vii.  c.  13. 

For  the  acquisition  of  Britain  both 
emperor  and  son  were  honored  by 
the  senate  with  the  title  Britannicus, 
and  coins  were  struck  (and  medals 
commemorating  the  event)  in  silver 
and  gold,  having  a  laureated  head 
of  Claudius  on  the  obverse  with  the 
inscription  ti.  clavd  caesar  avg. 
p.  M.  TR.  P.  VIIMP.  XI.  Tiberius 
Claudius  Csesar  Augustus  Pontifex 


70 


APOLLONIUS 


The  account  of  the  journey  of  Apollonius  into  India, 
which  was  compiled  by  Philostratus  from  the  journals 
of  Damis  of  Ninus,  a  disciple  who  never  for  one 
moment  left  the  side  of  his  master,  constitutes  the  most 
interesting  and  valuable  portion  of  the  book  of  his  life, 
inasmuch  as  he  was  the  first  Greek  who  had  visited 
India  for  purposes  other  than  conquest  or  commerce,1 
his  object  being  to  make  himself  familiar  with  the 
religious  rites,  discipline,  and  doctrines  of  the  Hindoo 
philosophers ; 2  and  as  he  traveled  without  a  retinue 
above  his  three  companions,  and  was  otherwise  unen¬ 
cumbered,  he  was  welcomed  and  entertained  by  the 
kings  and  wise  men  of  the  country,  and  had  every 
opportunity  of  familiar  intercourse  with  all  classes  of 
its  population.  He  was,  therefore,  circumstanced  to 
acquire  much  accurate  and  valuable  information  beyond 
the  reach  of  ordinary  travelers.  He  went  by  way  of 
Babylon  and  Susa,  in  order  that  he  might  meet  and 


maximus  Tribunitia  potestate  sex- 
tum  imperator  undecimum. 

Of  the  Roman  coins  found  in 
Britain  of  the  first  century,  there 
are  seven  of  Augustus;  one  of 
Agrippa ;  two  of  Tiberius ;  one  of 
Antonia  (wife  of  Drusus) ;  two  of 
Caligula;  fifteen  of  Claudius ;  eleven 
of  Nero;  thirteen  of  Vespasian; 
one  of  Titus  ;  ten  of  Domitian,  and 
one  of  Nerva. —  Cf.  Landi,  Selec- 
tiorum  numismatum  prcecipue  Ro- 
manorum ,  expositiones  (1695),  p. 
142. 

1  This  would  seem  questionable, 
for  Apollonius  declares  the  Hindoos 
already  familiar  with  Homer  and 
teach  his  writings  to  their  children. 


Dion  Chrysostom  ( De  Homero 
Oratio,  i.  iii.  272,  ii.  Riecke),  con¬ 
temporary  with  Plutarch  and  a  friend 
of  Apollonius,  insists  in  a  panegyric 
upon  Homer  upon  his  wide-spread 
reputation ;  for  his  poems,  it  is  said, 
are  sung  by  the  Indians,  who  have 
translated  them  into  their  own  lan¬ 
guage.  I  think,  however,  that  the 
Ramayana  and  the  Mahabharatta 
have  been  mistaken  for  imitations 
or  copies  of  Homer,  while  they  are 
more  probably  (certainly)  the  orig¬ 
inals  whence  Homer  drew  and 
which  he  naturalized  and  clothed  in 
Greek  garments. 

2  John  Henry  Newman,  vol.  i. 
P-  34 3- 


OF  TV  AN  A. 


7  I 


converse  with  the  Persian  Magi.1  Damis  became  his 
companion  and  disciple  at  Ninus  on  the  Euphrates,2 
between  Antioch  and  Zeugma.  At  Zeugma  the  cus¬ 
toms  were  collected  from  those  passing  and  repassing 
from  Syria  into  Mesopotamia.  “  Nature  seems,”  said 
Apollonius,  “  to  have  marked  the  Euphrates  as  the 
ultima  thule  of  Roman  dominion,  and  *  terminas  ’  may 
be  transcribed  upon  the  portals  of  the  bridge  at 
Zeugma.”  Mesopotamia  is  bound  by  the  Tigris  on  the 
east  and  Euphrates  on  the  west ;  these  two  rivers  run 
out  of  Armenia  and  the  farthest  parts  of  Mount  Taurus, 
and  encompass  the  country,  in  which  are  some  cities 
and  many  villages.3  They  spent  but  little  time  in  this 
country,  but  pressed  on  from  the  Euphrates  to  the 
Tigris ;  and,  after  passing  beyond  the  Ctesiphon,  they 
entered  the  territory  of  Babylon,  where  Apollonius 
was  met  by  the  king’s  guard  and  commanded  to  halt. 
We  shall  go  no  further  with  Apollonius  on  his  Indian 
journey,  the  translated  account  of  which,  in  Rev. 
Edward  Berwick’s  Life  of  Apollonius ,  occupies  one 
hundred  and  eighty-three  pages  of  closely  printed 
matter.  It  is  nearly  one-half  the  entire  book.  It  is 
also  set  forth  at  large,  and  specially  in  Priaulx’s  Indian 
Travels  of  Apollonius  of  Tyana,  etc.  (Quaritch,  London, 
1873).  We  shall  be  prevented,  through  a  necessary 
economy  of  space  in  this  sketch,  doing  more  than  occa¬ 
sionally  referring  to  this  interesting  journal,  it  also 
being  not  quite  pertinent  to  the  purposes  of  our  book. 


1  Cf.  Indian  Travels  of  Apollonius  on  the  Tigris.  The  journal  of  Damis 
of  Tyana ,  by  Priaulx  (Quaritch,  begins  at  Zeugma. 

London).  3  The  Indian  Travels  of  ApoU 

2  This  could  not  have  been  Ninus  lonius  of  Tyana ,  etc.,  p.  3,  et  seq. 


72 


APOLLONIUS 


“  But  why  need  we  stoop  to  particulars  ?  ”  says  Rev. 
H.  More,  in  his  book,  The  Grand  Mysteiy  of  God¬ 
liness ,  etc.  “  The  whole  life  of  Apollonius  was  nothing 
else  than  a  lofty  strutting  on  the  stage  of  the  earth  or 
an  industrious  trotting  from  one  nation  of  the  world  to 
another,  to  gather  honor  and  applause  to  himself  by 
correcting  the  customs  of  the  heathen  or  renewing 
their  fallen  rites. 

“  Besides,  the  bold  visits  he  made  to  princes  and 
potentates  with  the  greatest  confidence  and  ostentation 
of  his  own  virtues  that  could  be  imagined,  and  this 
unexpected  audacity  of  his  proved  ever  successful,  and 
he  managed  somehow  to  swagger  himself  into  respect : 
so  that  he  was  ever  ‘  haile  fellow  well  met  ’  with  the 
highest  kings  and  emperors,  they  being  ever  taken  with 
great  admiration  of  his  wisdom.  He  was  lodged  in 
their  palaces,  and  shown  the  pomp  and  glory  of  their 
kingdoms.  They  offered  him  great  sums  of  mone}/ 
and  precious  stones,  which  he  claims  to  have  refused. 
And  then  his  intermeddling  into  the  affairs  of  the 
Roman  empire ;  his  lengthy  political  conference  with 
Vespasian  in  Egypt ;  his  abetting  conspiracies  against 
Nero  and  Domitian ;  his  learned  discourses  with  the 
Babylonian  Magi ;  — all  prove  him  to  be  a  man  of  great 
lip-wisdom  and  conceit.”1 

Some  who  have  investigated  this  subject  have  ex¬ 
pressed  doubts  of  Apollonius  ever  having  visited  India 
at  all.  But  the  account  of  Damis  is  so  minute  in  detail 
and  exact  in  description,  and  bears  such  evidence  of 
artless  honesty  and  truthfulness,  that  we  are  convinced 
on  reading  it  that  it  could  have  been  written  by  none 
1  More’s  Grand  Mystery  of  Godliness. 


OF  TYANA. 


73 


other  than  an  eye-witness.1  Many  of  the  places  and 
events  described  and  related  by  Damis  were  never 
heard  of  in  Greece  before  the  visit  of  Apollonius,  the 
truth  of  which  modern  research  has  confirmed.2  He 


1  Cf.  A.  Chassang’s  Apollonius  de 
Tyane  (Paris,  1862). 

2  Cf.  Fiihrmann,  W.  D.,  Histor- 
ische  Untersitchung  iiber  die  Begrdb- 
nissplatze  der  Alten,  besonders  iiber 
Deutsc/ien,  zind  Fortgangdie  Gewohn- 
heil  unter  den  Christen  die  Leichen 
innerhalb  der  Siddte  und  in  den 
Kirchen  zu  beerdigen.  (1801.) 

In  a  work  published  in  1731, 
called  Grafs  Gunnery ,  we  find  the 
following  as  quoted  by  Captain 
Francis  Grose:  “In  the  Life  of 
Apollonius ,  written  by  Philostratus 
about  fifteen  hundred  years  ago, 
there  is  the  following  passage  con¬ 
cerning  the  people  of  India,  called 
Oxydra.  ‘  These  truly  wise  men 
dwelt  between  the  rivers  Hyphasis 
and  Ganges.  Their  country  Alex¬ 
ander  the  Great  never  entered,  de¬ 
terred  not  by  fear  of  the  inhabitants, 
but,  as  I  suppose,  by  religious  con¬ 
siderations  ;  for  had  he  passed  the 
Hyphasis,  he  might  doubtless  have 
made  himself  master  of  the  country 
all  around  them ;  but  their  cities  he 
never  could  have  taken,  though  he 
had  had  a  thousand  as  brave  as 
Achilles  or  the  thousand  such  as 
Ajax  brought  to  the  assault ;  for  they 
came  not  out  into  the  field  to  fight 
those  who  attacked  them,  but  their 
holy  men,  beloved  by  the  gods,  over¬ 
threw  their  enemies  with  tempests 
and  thunderbolts  from  the  walls.’  ” 


It  is  said  that  the  Egyptian  Her¬ 
cules  (A  New  System ,  or  an  Analy¬ 
sis  of  Antient  Mythology ,  etc.,  by 
Jacob  Bryant,  Esq.,  vol.  ii.  p.  345) 
and  Bacchus,  when  they  overran 
India,  invaded  this  people  also,  and, 
having  prepared  warlike  engines, 
attempted  to  conquer  them.  They 
made  no  show  of  resistance ;  but 
upon  the  enemy’s  near  approach  to 
their  cities  they  were  repulsed  with 
storms  of  lightning  and  thunder 
hurled  upon  them  from  above.  In 
a  book  entitled  The  Gunner ,  printed 
in  London  in  1664,  it  is  observed 
that  Uffana  states  that  “  the  inven¬ 
tion  and  use  as  well  of  ordinance  as 
of  gunpowder  was  in  the  eighty- 
fifth  year  of  our  Lord  made  known 
and  practiced  in  the  great  and  in¬ 
genious  kingdom  of  China,  and  that 
in  the  maretyme  provinces  thereof 
there  yet  remain  certain  pieces  of 
ordinance,  both  of  iron  and  brasse, 
with  the  memory  of  their  years  of 
founding  engraved  upon  them,  and 
that  arms  of  King  Vitney,  who,  he 
saith,  was  the  inventor.” 

Maurice,  also  speaking  of  the 
prowess  of  the  Hindoos  in  war, 
says :  “  The  missile  weapons  darted 
by  these  sages  in  noise  and  effect 
resembled  lightning  and  thunder.”" 
These  must  have  been  the  fire- 
rockets  described  in  the  sketches 
of  the  Hindoos. — History  of  II indoo- 


IO 


74 


APOLLONIUS 


speaks  of  the  ancient  —  ancient  in  his  day  —  commer¬ 
cial  relations  existing  between  the  Egyptians  and  the 
Hindoos,1  and  quotes  from  laws  enacted  for  the  protec¬ 
tion  of  navigation.  He  describes  ancient  ships  of  the 
Egyptians  and  their  pilots,  and  that  it  took  many 
hands  to  manage  their  sails  ;  that  part  of  the  crews 
were  armed  to  defend  themselves  against  pirates. 
Modern  research  has  confirmed  all  these  things.  He 
describes  the  system  of  astronomy  of  the  Hindoos,  a 
system  at  that  time  unknown  in  Greece,  and  which 
John  Bentley  of  the  Asiatic  Society  has  fully  explained 
in  his  work  called  A  Historical  View  of  the  Hindoo 
Astronomy  from  the  Earliest  Dawn  in  India ,  etc. 
(Smith,  Elder  &  Co.,  1825).  Apollonius  is  said  to  have 
visited  Barygaza,  a  city  of  great  commerce  in  his  day, 
situated  on  the  Nurbudda  River,  and  supposed  to  have 
been  the  Tarshish  of  Solomon.  He  visited  all  their 
temples,  made  himself  familiar  with  their  philosophy, 
mode  of  worship,  and  the  nature  of  their  gods.  Six 
hundred  years  before  the  time  of  Apollonius,  Buddha 
had  held  forth  in  these  same  sacred  temples  of 
Barygaza. 

It  was  through  these  Indian  itineraries  of  Apollonius 
that  a  renewed  impulsion  was  given  to  the  Hindoo  ele¬ 
ment  pervading  the  religion  and  philosophy  of  Greece  ; 
for  long  anterior  to  Apollonius,  Buddhism  and  Brah¬ 
manism  were  known  and  their  influence  felt  in  Asia 
Minor,  in  Alexandria,  in  Greece,  and  in  all  the  Oriental 
parts  of  the  Roman  empire.2  The  founding  of  the 

stan;  its  Antiquity  and  Sciences  as  1  Bryant’s  Antient Mythology,  vol. 

connected  with  the  other  great  Em-  iv.  p.  373,  et  seq. 
piresofAsia,2vo\s.  (Thos.  Maurice,  2  H.  A.  Daniel,  Theologische  Con- 
1795),  vol.  ii.  p.  652.  troversen  (1843). 


OF  TYANA. 


75 


great  library  and  museum  of  Demetrius  Phalerius  made 
Alexandria  the  great  center  of  art,  science,  literature, 
and  religion,  whence  it  radiated  to  all  the  eastern 
world.  That  beautiful  Hindoo  allegory,  the  tenth 
incarnation  of  Christna,  the  Saviour  of  the  Maha  race, 
lost  but  little  in  the  land  of  its  adoption,  the  prophe¬ 
cies  concerning  his  coming — the  miraculous  concep¬ 
tion  of  his  mother  Mary  —  being  overshadowed  by  the 
great  god  Brahm.  The  manger,  the  shepherds,  have 
all  been  reproduced  in  Judea;  Cansa,  the  king  and 
uncle  of  the  child,  seeking  to  destroy  him,  and  ordering 
all  the  male  children  to  be  slain ;  the  warning  to  his 
mother  in  a  dream ;  the  flight  out  of  the  country  and 
remaining  until  the  death  of  those  who  sought  the 
child’s  life,  are  all  coincidences  too  striking  to  be 
purely  accidental,  and  are  too  familiar  to  every  Chris¬ 
tian  ear  to  be  recited  in  detail.1 * * * * & 


1  History  of  Hindoostan  :  Its  Arts 
and  its  Sciences  as  connected  with  the 
other  great  Empires  of  Asia  during 
the  most  ancient  period  of  the  zvorld, 
by  the  author  of  Indian  Antiquities 
(Thomas  Maurice),  2  vols.  quarto 

(London,  1798),  vol.  ii.  p.  31 1,  etc.; 
La  Bible  dans  V  Inde,  Vie  de  Jezeus 

Christna,  par  Louis  Jacolliot  (Paris, 

1869),  p.  273  ;  Vestiges  of  the  Spirit- 
History  of  Man,  by  S.  F.  Dunlap 
(New  York,  Appleton  &  Co.),  p. 

157,  etc. ;  The  Mythology  of  the 
Aryan  Nations,  George  W.  Cox, 
M.  A.,  2  vols.  (Longmans,  Greene 

&  Co.,  London,  1870),  vol.  ii.  p. 
102  ;  The  History  of  India ,  Hindu, 
Buddhist,  and  Brahmanical,  by  J. 
Talboys  Wheeler  (Triibner  &  Co., 
1874),  pp.  67,  366,  376,  etc. ;  Es¬ 


says  and  Lectures,  chiefly  on  the  Re¬ 
ligion  of  the  Hindoos,  by  the  late  H. 
H.  Wilson,  M.  A.,  F.  R.  S.,  2  vols. 
(Triibner  &  Co.,  London,  1874),  vol. 
ii.  pp.  10,  264;  cf.  Asiatic  Research¬ 
es,  or  Translations  of  the  Society  in¬ 
stituted  in  Bengal  for  Inquiring  into 
the  Arts,  Sciences,  and  Literature 
of  Asia,  6  vols.  (1779);  cf.  Indian 
A ntiquities,  or  Dissertations  Relative 
to  the  Ancient  Geography,  Coined 
Moziey,  Literature,  etc.,  etc.,  of  Hin¬ 
doostan,  7  vols.  (London,  1800) ; 
Tree  and  Serpent  Worship,  or  Illus¬ 
trations  of  Mythology  and  Art  in 
India  in  the  First  and  Fourth  Cen¬ 
turies  after  Christ,  from  the  Sculpt¬ 
ured  Topes  of  Sane  hi  and  Amravati, 
by  James  Ferguson  (London,  1873), 
second  edition,  p.  74,  etc. 


76 


APOLLONIUS 


The  miracles  said  to  have  been  performed  by 
Christna  during  his  mission  being  almost  identical  with 
those  attributed  to  Apollonius,  were  all  well  known  and 
discussed  in  Alexandria  at  this  time,  and  leave  but  little 
credit  for  originality  to  attach  to  the  miraculous  per¬ 
formances  of  Apollonius.  And  although  Apollonius 
never  encouraged  the  propagation  of  the  story  of  his 
divine  nature,  yet  he  never  emphatically  repudiated  it, 
knowing  that  but  little  respect  attached  to  the  person  or 
teachings  of  any  philosophy  with  the  vulgar  multitudes 
unless  founded  on  the  evidence  of  divine  inspiration,  the 
demonstration  of  which  was  miracle ;  and  he  appears  to 
have  allowed  the  vulgar  populace  to  believe  this.1 

Of  all  the  dogmas  which  have  permeated  the  relig¬ 
ions  of  all  times  and  all  countries,  ancient  or  modern, 
none  is  more  universal  than  the  sonship  of  the  gods : 2 
for  as  the  ages  progressed  to  that  period  when  men 
could  no  longer  persuade  their  deluded  satellites  that 
they  were  gods,  they  accepted  the  less  illogical  dogma 
of  sons  of  God,  and  some,  that  although  only  sons, 
were  co-equal  with  the  father. 

Again  reverting  to  Judea,  we  find  that  on  the  death 
of  King  Agrippa,  A.  D.  44, 3  Claudius  appointed  Cuspius 
Fadus  as  procurator  at  Jerusalem.  So  much  importance 
was  attached  to  the  performance  of  miracles  in  Judea 
at  this  period,  that  Fadus  beheaded  one  Theudas  who 
created  a  public  disturbance  in  an  effort  to  perform  a 
miracle  by  dividing  the  Jordan. 

1  The  vanity  and  egotism  of  Jesus  2  Cf.  Vestiges  of  the  Spirit- History 
in  pressing  his  claims  as  “son  of  of  Man,  by  S.  F.  Dunlap  (1858). 
God,”  and  the  fawning  servility  with  3  Assassinated  by  a  tribune  who 
which  he  ratified  his  title,  mark  him  commanded  his  guard. —  Suetonius, 
as  a  man  of  low  origin.  p.  208. 


OF  TV  AN  A. 


n 


After  the  journeyings  of  Apollonius  in  India,  which 
probably  did  not  extend  beyond  the  reign  of  Claudius, 
from  A.  D.  41  to  A.  D.  54,  he  returned  to  his  native  country 
by  the  Erythraean  Sea,  Babylon,  thence  to  Ninus  and  to 
Antioch,  in  the  northern  part  of  Syria,  where  he  had 
formerly  resided.1  This  magnificent  city,  for  many 
years  the  residence  of  the  Macedonian  kings  and  Roman 
governors,  was  subsequently  noted  as  being  the  “  Eye 
of  the  Eastern  Christian  Church,”  and  the  witness  of  ten 
ecclesiastical  councils.  It  is  here  that  the  name  Chris¬ 
tian  is  said  to  have  been  first  applied  to  the  followers 
of  Jesus.2  This  christening  of  the  new  creed  must  have 
taken  place  during  Apollonius’s  first  stay  in  Antioch, 
which  extended  to  41  A.  D.,  and  during  a  period  in 
which  he  was  delivering  lectures  upon  divine  matters, 
and  informing  himself  upon  all  religious  subjects  in  the 
province.  It  is  strange  he  did  not  mention  the  rumor 
of  the  new  schism.3 


1  A.  Chassang,  Apollonius  de 
Tyane  (Paris),  p.  138. 

2  We  have  no  historical  evidence 
of  the  period  when  they  were  so 
called.  In  Theodoret’s  History  of  the 
Church ,  b.  I,  c.  xxiii.,  he  says  that 
the  groves  of  Daphne  in  the  neigh¬ 
borhood  of  Antioch,  once  sacred  to 
Apollo,  were  in  A.  D.  357  dedicated 
to  the  church.  These  were  the 
grounds  on  which  stood,  in  time  of 
Apollonius,  the  magnificent  temple 
of  Apollo  Daphnaeus. 

3  That  the  disciples  were  first 
called  Christians  at  Antioch  (a 
heathen  city)  about  A.  D.  43,  rests 
upon  the  sole  authority  of  the  book 
of  Acts,  which  Dr.  Davidson  con¬ 


cedes  was  not  written  earlier  than 
a.  D.  125.  But  there  is  no  positive 
proof  that  it  was  written  as  early  as 
A.  D.  200.  Therefore  its  value,  as 
establishing  the  fact  about  Antioch, 
is  quite  apparent. — Revelations 
Antichrist,  p.  98. 

It  is  a  great  pity  that  we  have  no 
more  reliable  data  concerning  this 
interesting  city;  nearly  all  the  rec¬ 
ords  concerning  it  stop  short  and 
abrupt  just  before  the  Christian  era. 
And  Antioch  the  great,  the  second 
city  of  the  Roman  empire,  the  oldest 
Christian  city  on  earth,  is  blotted 
from  the  page  of  history  for  over  five 
hundred  years,  for  it  does  not  ap¬ 
pear  again  until  the  middle  of  the 


73 


APOLLONIUS 


Apollonius  spent  several  months  in  Antioch,  A.  D, 
48,  just  after  the  great  earthquake,  during  the  reign 
of  Claudius.  He  describes  minutely  the  habits  and 
religion  of  the  people;  he  says  they  were  indolent, 
indulging  in  every  species  of  idle  merriment,  and  were 
extremely  superstitious,  leaving  no  room  for  the  pur¬ 
suits  which  are  held  in  high  estimation  by  the  Greeks. 
The  city  was  supplied  with  magnificent  temples  ;  the 
one  to  Jupiter  was  the  most  famous  out  of  Rome.  One 
of  its  great  retreats  for  pleasure  was  the  cypress  grove 
of  Daphne,1  about  twenty  stadia  from  the  city,  hence 
S7ui  Aa<pv7].  At  this  time  work  was  progressing  upon 
the  stately  Selucidian  theatre. 

The  dissolute  morals  of  the  city  were  so  distasteful  to 
Apollonius  that  he  determined  not  to  remain,  and  he 
immediately  departed  for  Seleucia,  the  seaport  of  An¬ 
tioch.2  His  journey  was  down  the  Heraclean  Way 
('HpaxXsov)  which  passes  among  beautiful  villas  and 


fifth  century.  There  is  a  record  of  an 
earthquake  there  A.  D.  37  ;  another 
during  the  reign  of  Claudius,  and 
another  A.  d.  115.  But  everything 
resembling  consecutive  history  has 
been  carefully  laid  aside  beyond  the 
reach  of  the  historian. — See  Encyclo¬ 
paedia  Brit. ,  ar  t.  Antioch.  The  stories 
of  the  great  splendor  of  Antioch, 
of  its  palaces  and  triumphal  arches, 
sacred  images  in  the  groves,  and 
costly  pictures  and  statues  in  private 
apartments,  are  tantalizing  in  their 
meagerness,  and  yet,  gleaning  from 
the  poets  and  other  pagan  sources, 
its  general  features  maybe  discerned 
enough  to  confirm  its  greatness. 


1  Mythology  and  Fable  (Banier), 

i-  345- 

2  This  city  was  built  by  Seleucus 
Nicator,  who  had  determined  mak¬ 
ing  it  the  capital  of  his  new  kingdom. 
It  was  dedicated  to  the  thunder- 
god,  Jupiter  Fulminans  Seleucen- 
sium,  and  this  was  the  Jupiter  To- 
nans  of  the  Romans.  Imperial 
Greek  coins  were  issued  at  Ephesus 
and  Seleucia  without  intermission 
from  Augustus  to  Septimius  Sever- 
us,  with  the  type  of  “  thunderbolt 
and  flame,”  and  pagan  coins  circu¬ 
lated  without  discount  in  these 
places  seven  hundred  years  after 
Apollonius. 


OF  TYANA. 


79 


fountains ;  he  spent  his  first  night  in  the  temple  of 
Apollo  and  Diana,  situated  in  the  grove  of  Daphne ; 
here  was  a  colossal  statue  of  Apollo,  the  work  of  Bry- 
axis.1  The  next  day  he  reached  Seleucia,  forty  stadia 
distant,  and  proceeded  at  once  to  the  port2  and  took 
passage  in  a  vessel  bound  for  Smyrna.  He  embraced 
the  time  occupied  in  taking  in  cargo  to  visit  the  city, 
the  walls  of  which  were  about  forty  stadia  in  extent, 
with  two  gates,  one  opening  to  the  port  and  the  other 
on  the  Heraclean  Way  toward  Antioch.  The  aque¬ 
duct  which  supplied  the  city  with  water  Apollonius 
describes  as  a  stupendous  structure ;  the  most  remark¬ 
able  he  had  ever  seen.  The  next  morning,  before  day¬ 
light,  they  put  to  sea  in  tempestuous  weather,  but  with  a 
fair  wind,  and  in  the  afternoon  of  the  same  day  made 
the  island  of  Cyprus.  Cyprus  (IvuTTpo?)  was  the  birth¬ 
place  of  Zeno,  the  father  of  stoicism.  He  was  born  at 
Citium,  but  early  in  life  settled  in  Athens.  There  was 
another  Zeno,  a  stoic,  he  was  a  Sidonian ;  and  still 
another,  of  Tarsus,  son  of  Dioscorides.  Zeno,  the  Greek 
physician  mentioned  by  Galen,  was  also  probably  a 
stoic,  as  well  as  Zeno  the  historian  of  Rhodes,  and  Zeno 
of  Caria,  a  Greek  sculptor. 

Cyprus,  more  especially  than  any  part  of  the  East, 
had  passed  through  great  vicissitudes  of  fortune,  having 
had  successively  Egyptian,  Phoenician,  Persian,  and  again 
Egyptian  masters.3  It  was  now  a  Roman  pro-consular 
province  attached  to  Silicia.  Apollonius  says  the  early 


1  This  is  confirmed  "by  the  extant  this  basin  was  entirely  artificial,  and 

coins  of  Antiochus  Epiphanes.  was  excavated  to  make  shelter  for 

2  A  basin  2000  feet  long,  1200  feet  shipping. 

wide,  occupying  an  area  of  47  acres ;  3  Lang’s  Cyprus ,  p.  13. 


8o 


A  POLL  ONI  US 


history  of  Cyprus  is  obscure  and  imperfectly  known, 
and  many  vague  traditions  have  gained  currency  there 
from  an  ignorance  of  its  monuments,  its  medals,  its 
obelisks,  and  the  language  in  which  its  annals  are  re¬ 
corded, —  he  scoffed  the  old  tradition  that  Cyprus  was 
separated  from  Syria  by  an  earthquake.1 


1  Cyprus,  in  the  archaic  period, 
was  the  most  noted  country  in  the 
East.  It  was  the  seat  of  civilization 
and  refinement  when  Europe  was 
wild  and  barbarous,  and  it  is  from 
here  that  Greece  undoubtedly  de¬ 
rived  much  of  her  culture  and  relig¬ 
ion,  as  Cyprus  no  doubt  secured  hers 
from  Egypt.  Cyprus  has  long  been 
noted  among  classical  writers  as  a 
principal  seat  of  the  worship  of  the 
goddess  Aphrodite,  identical  with  the 
Phoenician  Astarte,  the  Ashtaroth 
of  the  Bible,  and  better  known  as 
the  Paphian  or  celestial  Venus.  But 
the  island  was  inhabited  by  many 
peoples  and  races ;  the  modern  re¬ 
searches  of  General  di  Cesnola  have 
brought  to  light  statues  and  other 
relics  of  the  worship  of  Cybele  Dem¬ 
eter,  Parsalia,  and  the  Phoenician 
Hercules,  the  Moloch  of  Scripture, 
and  the  Kronos  of  Grecian  mythol- 
ogy;  Egyptian  tombs,  symbolical 
figures,  and  pottery  were  also  ex¬ 
humed.  The  city  of  Paphos,  now 
Paleopaphos,  as  distinguished  from 
New  Paphos,  was  situated  about 
fifty  stadia,  or  six  miles,  from  the 
port,  or  New  Paphos.  The  name 
arose  in  this  wise :  Pygmalion,  a 
famous  statuary,  formed  a  beautiful 
image  of  a  virgin  in  ivory,  with  which 


he  became  so  deeply  enamored  that 
he  treated  it  as  a  real  mistress,  and 
continually  solicited  Venus  by 
prayers  and  sacrifices  to  animate  his 
beloved  statue.  His  wishes  were 
granted,  and  by  this  enlivened 
beauty  he  had  a  son  called  Paphos, 
who  gave  his  name  to  the  city  of 
Paphos  in  Cyprus.  The  worship 
of  the  goddess  was  of  the  most  las¬ 
civious  character,  being  the  same  as 
that  accorded  to  Mylite. — Ovid,  lib. 
x.  245 ;  cf.  A  Neiv  Pantheon  of  the 
Heathen  Gods,  etc.,  by  S.  Boyse 
(London,  1753),  p.  103  ;  Tacitus,  p. 
384;  Knight’s  Ancient  Art,  etc.,  p. 
154;  also,  Cyprus,  Its  Ancient 
Cities,  Tombs,  and  Temples  :  A  Nar¬ 
rative  of  Research ,  etc. ,  by  General 
Louis  Palma  di  Cesnola.  Like  the 
city  of  Antioch,  but  little  is  known 
of  the  island  of  Cyprus,  except 
through  the  writings  which  have 
escaped  destruction,  as  those  of 
Apollonius.  The  early  history  of 
Cyprus  is  pretty  succinctly  told  up 
to  130  B.  C. ;  from  that  period  there 
is  nothing  reliable  related  of  it,  ex¬ 
cept  the  record  of  destructive  earth¬ 
quakes  until  the  fifth  century,  A.  D. 
The  destroying  angel  had  made 
pretty  effective  work  with  the  history 
of  this  island ;  during  this  historic 


OF  TYANA. 


8i 


It  had  been  the  intention  of  Apollonius  to  visit  the 
ancient  port  and  city  of  Salamis,  on  the  east  end  of 
Cyprus,  and  verify  the  Greek  tradition  of  Teucer,  son 
of  Telemon,  the  Trojan  hero,1  and  thence  to  proceed 
by  land  to  Paphos,  visiting  ancient  Citium,2  Curium, 
the  sacred  temple  of  Apollo  Hylates,  and  the  Phoeni¬ 
cian  city  of  Amalthus ;  and  this  port  they  were  ap¬ 
proaching,  but  a  violent  gale  from  the  east  prevailing, 


interim  there  are  some  traditions  of 
the  great  work  and  great  miracles 
wrought  through  Christianity.  But 
all  reputable  historians  give  these 
traditions  a  wide  margin. 

Pomponius  Mela,  author  of  De 
Situ  Orbis ,  an  unreliable  though 
prolific  writer,  left  no  testimony  con¬ 
cerning  Christianity. — Cf.  Heathen 
Records  to  Jewish  Scripture  History, 
etc.,  by  Rev.  Dr.  Giles,  p.  90;  see 
also  di  Cesnola’s  great  work  (Har¬ 
pers,  1878). 

1  Mythology  and  Fables  of  the 
Ancients  (Banier),  vol.  iv.  p.  249. 

2  Cf.  Lang’s  Cyprus,  p.  24. 

Little  is  known  of  this  ancient 

town.  It  issued  coins  down  to  the 
time  of  the  Ptolemies,  and  although 
Smith’s  Dictionary  says  “  they  did 
not  coin  money,”  R.  Hamilton  Lang, 
formerly  British  Consul  for  Cyprus, 
has  several  in  his  possession  bearing 
the  letters  K.  1.,  indicating  that  they 
belong  to  Citium. — Inman’s  Ancient 
Faiths,  etc.,  vol.  ii.  p.  196. 

Upon  certain  coins  of  Cyprus  wre 
find  the  “  simulacrum  ”  of  Venus, 
as  described  by  Tacitus  and  Maxi¬ 
mus  Tyrius.  The  coins  of  Cyprus 

I  I 


united  Greek  art  and  Phoenician 
language  and  Egyptian  supersti¬ 
tions.  They  were  engraved  by  the 
Greek,  inscribed  in  Phoenician  let¬ 
ters, —  on  one  side  the  bull  Apis , 
with  the  symbol  of  life ;  on  the 
other,  the  dove.  Apollonius  says 
their  religion  was  a  mixture.  The 
pieces  of  Augustus,  Livia,  and  Dru- 
sus,  without  naming  the  island,  but 
with  the  temple  of  Venus  Paphia, 
have  Latin  legends  ;  those  of  Clau¬ 
dius,  Latin  and  Greek  legends ;  all 
later  pieces  are  entirely  Greek. — 
Ntimismata  Imperatorum  Romano- 
ncm,  etc.  (J.  Vaillant,  1694),  p.  38. 

The  coins  of  Cyprus  are  of  the 
highest  numismatic  interest;  they 
represent  six  different  kingdoms  of 
the  island.  They  are  also  impor¬ 
tant  religious  records,  the  most 
ancient  having  a  large  Phoenician 
element,  then  Babylonian  and  Egyp¬ 
tian. — Cyprus  :  Its  History,  its  Pres¬ 
ent  Resources  end  Future  Prospects, 
by  R.  Hamilton  Lang  (London,. 
1878),  p.  352  ;  Cyprus :  A  Hew  Sys¬ 
tem,  or  an  Analysis  of  Antient  My¬ 
thology,  etc.,  by  Jacob  Bryant,  6 
vols.  (London,  1807),  vol.  i.  p.  283. 


82  . 


APOLLONIUS 


the  commander,  deeming  it  unsafe  to  risk  his  vessel  in 
so  open  and  exposed  a  roadstead  as  Salamis,  again 
stood  out  to  sea,  and  before  dark  had  passed  the  Pe- 
dalion  (now  Cape  Greco),  and  early  the  next  day 
anchored  in  the  port  of  Paphos.1  On  debarking  at 
New  Paphos,  Apollonius  and  his  disciples  proceeded 
to  Paphos  at  once,  about  twenty  stadia  from  the  port. 
Paphos  had  during  the  reign  of  Augustus  been  nearly 
destroyed  by  an  earthquake,  but  had  been  rebuilt  by 
the  munificence  of  the  emperor.2  They  visited  the 
temple  and  statue  of  Venus  (the  latter  consisted  of  a 
conical  stone  only 3 ),  and  having  instructed  the  priests 
of  the  inner  court  of  the  temple  in  many  things,  Apol¬ 
lonius  deemed  it  unwise  to  remain  longer,  in  conse¬ 
quence  of  the  unsettled  state  of  the  weather,  and  took 
his  departure  for  the  port. 

With  the  rites  performed  in  the  inner  court  of  the 
temple  of  the  celestial  Venus,  Apollonius  expressed 
himself  satisfied  in  the  highest  degree.  No  blood  of 
bulls  or  goats  or  any  living  creature  ever  stained  the 
altar  of  this  temple.  But  with  the  feast  of  Mylitta,4  an 
accessory  performed  without  and  in  the  vestibule  of 
the  temple,  he  was  strong  in  condemnation.  This  rite 
did  not  of  right  belong  to  the  worship  of  the  goddess, 
but  was  a  Babylonish  sacrament  imposed  upon  it.  The 


1  Apollonius  deTyane  (Chassang), 

P-  139- 

2  Cyprus  :  Its  History ,  its  Pres¬ 
ent  Resources  and  Future  Prospects , 
by  R.  Hamilton  Lang  (1878), 
P*  35* 

3  Inman’s  Ancient  Faiths ,  etc., 

vol.  i.  p.  468. 


4  K]V  0sov  MoXitta.  Mylitta,  or 
Mylidoth,  is  a  Chaldaic  word  which 
Scaliger  interprets  “  genitrix,”  one 
of  the  epithets  of  Venus.  Her 
temple  was  sacred  to  Succoth  Be- 
noth,  signifying  “  tent  of  the  girls.” 
—  Larclier’s  Notes  on  Herodotus , 
2  vols.  (London,  1884),  vol.  i.  p.  190. 


OF  TYANA. 


temple  was  anciently  the  temple  of  the  Tyrian  Her¬ 
cules  and  Astarte,  the  solemn  veiled  priestess,1  who  sat 
with  an  infant  at  her  bosom, —  the  original  whence  was 
derived  the  idea  of  the  Christian  Madonna.  This 
heartless  and  wanton  goddess,  who  afterward  became 
the  beautiful  and  charming  Aphrodite,  was  the  most 
beautiful  of  all  ideal  creatures,  and  was  subsequently, 
under  the  Greek  regime ,  transformed  into  Venus.  She 
has  undergone  her  third  transformation,  and  is  now  the 
virgin  mother  of  God  (Aphrodites).  The  great  temple  2 
stood  upon  a  high  point,  and  could  be  seen  by  mariners 
at  a  great  distance.3  Its  dimensions  were  two  hundred 
and  twenty-one  by  one  hundred  and  sixty-seven  feet, 
and  was  founded  by  Cinyras,  the  story  of  whose  daugh¬ 
ter  Myrrha  and  son  Adonis  is  familiar  to  every  clas¬ 
sical  scholar.4  The  rites  to  which  Apollonius  had 
expressed  so  strong  disapprobation  were  in  honor 
of  Aphrodite  Mylitta,  or  the  Paphian  Venus,5  and 
which  required  every  native  female  once  a  year,  or 
at  least  once  in  her  life,  to  prostitute  herself  to  any 


1  Vestiges  of  Spirit-History  of 
Man  (Dunlap),  p.  37,  et  seq. 

2  Afterwards  a  Christian  church, 
then  a  mosque,  now  an  indefinable 
ruin. 

3  A  most  extraordinary  feature 
of  this  Cyprian  beauty,  Venus,  was, 
that  she  was  exhibited  with  a  beard 
under  the  name  of  Aphroditus 

('AcppoSixoc;  Hesychus).  She  is  also 

so  represented  by  Servius  (Servius 
upon  Virgil ,  JEneid ,  lib.  ii.  v.  632). 
“  Est  etiam  in  Cypro  simulacrum 
barbatce  Veneris.”  The  poet  Calvus 
speaks  of  her  as  masculine. — Ma- 


crobiuSy  lib.  iii.  c.  8  ;  Porphyry  apud 
Eusebium.  Prcep .  Evang.  lib.  iii. 
c.  II. 

4  Apollonius  thinks  the  curious 
story  related  by  Pliny  (from  an  an¬ 
cient  tradition),  that  there  was  a 
lion  with  emerald  eyes  surmount¬ 
ing  a  tomb  of  one  of  the  kings  of 
Cyprus  at  Paphos,  was  a  mere  fable. 
The  lion  was  said  to  overlook  the 
sea,  and  the  dazzling  rays  of  his 
emerald  eyes  scared  the  tiny  fish 
from  the  coast. 

5  Inman’s  Ancient  Faiths ,  etc., 
vol.  ii.  p.  350. 


84 


APOLLONIUS 


stranger  who  presented  himself  and  offered  her  money, 
and  for  this  purpose  she  kept  herself  in  waiting  in  the 
stoa  of  the  temple.1  In  Babylon,  as  well  as  in  Cyprus, 
the  observance  of  this  rite  was  considered  indispensable 
by  women  of  every  rank  and  position.2 

On  arriving  at  New  Paphos  Apollonius  found  the 
vessel  ready  to  leave  the  port,  not  being  able  to 
remain,  in  consequence  of  the  boisterous  weather 
and  the  exposed  nature  of  the  harbor.  Although 
late  in  the  day,  they  sailed  immediately,  and  as 
soon  as  the  vessel  had  cleared  the  headlands  of  the 


1  Travels  of  Antenor  (translated 
by  E.  F.  Lantier),  vol.  iii.  p.  69,  etc. 

2  Herodotus ,  i.  199. 

Mylitta  is  the  Assyrian  name  of 
this  goddess ;  the  Arabians  called 
her  Alitta,  the  Persians  Mitra, 
Aphrodite  with  the  Greeks. — Cf.  A 
New  System ,  or  an  A  nalysis  of  A  n- 
tient  Mythology ,  etc.,  by  Jacob  Bry¬ 
ant,  6  vols.  (London),  vol.  i.  p.  37 7; 
Ibid.  vol.  iii.  p.  23,  etc. 

This  custom  prevailed  in  Armenia, 
Phrygia,  Palestine,  Carthage,  and 
Italy, —  everywhere,  except  with  the 
Greeks  and  Egyptians,  says  Herod¬ 
otus.  These  exceptions  Herodotus 
might  have  omitted,  at  least  so  far 
as  concerns  the  Greeks,  for  there 
were  thousands  of  sacred  prostitutes 
kept  in  each  of  the  celebrated  tem¬ 
ples  of  Venus  at  Eryx  and  Corinth, 
who  were  said  to  have  been  ex¬ 
tremely  expert  in  the  duties  of  their 
profession.  And  Hosea,  referring 
to  this  peculiar  form  of  Mylitta 
worship,  declared  Samaria  levied  a 
reward  at  every  corn  floor. —  Dis¬ 


sertation  sur  les  Attributs  de  Venus , 
by  Abbe  de  La  Chan  (Paris,  1776), 
p.  160;  also,  Herodotus ,  ii.  64; 
Strabo ,  viii.  ;  Diodorus  Siculus ,  iv. ; 
Juvenal,  Satire,  22',  cf.  The  Symbol¬ 
ical  Language  of  Ancient  Art  and 
Mythology  (R.  Payne  Knight), p.  54. 

The  coinage  of  Cyprus  is  of  the 
highest  numismatic  interest.  There 
have  been  recovered  six  different 
types  of  coins  whose  Cypriote  ori¬ 
gin  is  attested  by  legends  in  Cypriote 
characters.  In  all  we  have  forty- 
eight  varieties  of  coins  from  Cyprus. 
On  the  early  Greek  coins,  upon 
which  is  found  an  inverse  or  in¬ 
dented  square,  sometimes  divided 
into  four  and  sometimes  into  more 
compartments,  are  symbols  of  the 
celestial  Venus,  or  female  productive 
power.  Similar  impressions  occur 
on  some  Egyptian  amulets  of  paste, 
all  having  the  same  significance. 
The  lyre  was  also  a  type  on  one  of 
Mylitta.  —  Catalogue  of  Oriental 
Coins,  by  S.  L.  and  R.  Poole,  vol. 
iv.  Egypt. 


OF  TYANA. 


85 


roadstead  of  Paphos  they  headed  for  the  coast  of 
Lycia,  the  gale  continuing  in  the  mean  time  unabated 
through  the  greater  part  of  the  night.  The  master  of 
the  ship,  being  well  versed  in  a  knowledge  of  the  winds, 
and  also  of  the  celestial  bodies,  their  motions  and  influ¬ 
ence,  and  also  being  familiar  with  the  harbors  and  rocks, 
continued  his  course  during  the  night.  The  next 
morning,  being  more  favored  by  Neptune,  they  sighted 
Mount  Cragus,  the  south  promontory  of  Lycia,  and  on 
the  evening  of  the  same  day  anchored  in  the  harbor  of 
Rhodes.  The  harbor  was  filled  with  merchantmen 
engaged  in  the  various  traffics  of  Alexandria  and  Syra¬ 
cuse.1  The  winds  favoring,  they  sailed  the  next  morn¬ 
ing  before  day,  and  coasted  in  sight  of  the  shores  of 
Caria,  Doris,  and  Cnidus,2  the  last  being  the  birthplace 
of  Eudoxus,  the  astronomer ;  Ctesias,  the  historian  ;  and 
Sostratus,  the  builder  of  the  Pharos  at  Alexandria,  and 
for  the  night  put  into  the  harbor  of  Halicarnassus  (now 
Budrum),  opposite  the  island  of  Cos,  rendered  famous 
by  the  services  of  that  great  woman,  Artemisia,  and  the 
magnificent  tomb  erected  by  her  on  the  principal  street 
in  the  heart  of  the  city  to  the  memory  of  her  husband, 
Mausolus  ;  this  work  was  executed  by  the  sculptors 
Scopas,  Leschares,  and  Bryaxis.3  There  were  also 


1  Travels  of  Anterior ,  vol.  ii.  p. 
357* 

2  Cnidus,  like  Mytilene,  Myndus, 
and  many  other  Hellenic  cities,  was 
originally  built  on  an  island  which 
the  Greeks  called  Triopion ;  it  is  a 
lofty  rock,  rising  abruptly  from  the 
low  isthmus  which  now  connects  it 
with  the  mainland,  but  which  was 


formerly  a  strait.  In  ancient  times 
this  port  was  a  secure  haven  for 
Phoenician  and  Egyptian  navigators 
during  storms  and  gales. 

3  The  head  of  this  famous  statue 
of  Mausolus  was  unearthed  at  Bud- 
rum,  1857,  by  C.  T.  Newton,  keeper 
of  Greek  and  Roman  antiquities  of 
the  British  Museum. 


86 


APOLLONIUS 


celebrated  temples  to  Mars,  Apollo,  and  Venus,  but 
more  especially  was  this  city  attractive  to  Apollonius 
for  being  the  place  where  Herodotus  was  born,  from 
which  he  was  banished,  and  where  he  died.  “We  set 
sail,”  says  Damis,  “on  the  next  day,  and,  steering 
northerly  of  Cos  and  near  unto  the  island  of  Calymna, 
entered  the  gulf  of  Issus,  and  from  thence,  passing 
under  the  craggy  summits  of  Samos,  the  mightiest  of 
all  the  states  of  Greece,  in  the  days  of  Pericles,  save 
only  Athens,  on  the  close  of  the  third  day  arrived  at 
Panormus,  seaport  of  Ephesus,  where  Apollonius,  having 
paid  his  vows  to  the  gods,  proceeded  at  once  to  Ephe¬ 
sus,”1  one  of  the  great  cities  of  Ionia,  and  sacred  to 
Artemis  (Diana);  they  debarked  at  the  city  port,  in  front 
.  of  the  gymnasium,  in  the  rear  of  which  was  the  Forum, 
at  the  foot  of  Mount  Coressus.  The  moment  he  arrived 
it  was  noised  about  the  city,  and  the  citizens  left  their 
work  and  followed  him,  paying  him  homage  and  ap¬ 
plause.2  The  first  discourse  Apollonius  gave  at  Ephe¬ 
sus  was  from  the  porch  of  the  temple  of  Diana,3  after 


1  There  appears  to  be  a  great 
hiatus  in  the  profane  history  of  Ephe¬ 
sus  ;  nothing  is  related  of  it  with 
certainty  of  history  from  some  time 
before  the  Christian  era  to  the  fifth 
century.  Ecclesiastical  history,  how¬ 
ever,  says  that  Paul  preached  there, 
and  wrote  some  of  his  epistles  there, 
55,  56,  and  64,  A.  D.  ( Encyclopedia 
Brit.  ;  Haydn’s  Die.  of  Dates)  ;  not 
sustained  by  contemporaneous  facts. 
J.  T.  Wood,  in  his  great  work,  Dis¬ 
coveries  at  Ephesus,  including  the 
Great  Temple  of  Diana  of  Ephesus, 
declined  throwing  any  light  upon  this 
subject,  or  giving  us  any  history  of 


this  famous  city  during  a  period  of 
eight  hundred  years,  so  complete 
and  thorough  had  been  the  work  of 
the  literary  despoiler.  Not  that  the 
town  wanted  importance,  for  it  was 
an  important  place  up  to  the  eleventh 
century,  and  a  pagan  city  during  the 
eighth  century. 

2  The  entry  of  Apollonius  into 
Ephesus,  says  d’Aussy,  is  a  parallel 
to  the  triumphal  entry  of  Jesus  into 
Jerusalem. — Le  Grand  d’Aussy,  vol. 
i.  p.  24. 

3  This  temple  was  one  of  the  seven 
wonders  of  the  world.  It  was  425 
feet  long  and  250  broad,  and  was 


OF  TYANA. 


87 


the  manner  of  the  stoics,  exhorting  them  to  spend  their 
time  in  study  and  philosophy,  and  to  abandon  their 
dissipation  and  cruel  sports.1  He  also  preached  on 
“  Community  of  Goods,”  illustrating  his  discourse  with 
the  parable  of  the  sparrow ;  other  discourses  were  held 
in  the  groves  near  Xysta.2  And  the  city  of  Ephesus, 
which  was  so  notorious  for  its  profligacy  and  frivolity, 
was  brought  back  by  the  teachings  of  Apollonius  to 
the  cultivation  of  philosophy  and  the  practice  of  virtue.3 
He  did  not  teach  after  the  manner  of  Socrates,  but 
endeavored  to  detach  his  disciples  from  all  occupation 
other  than  philosophy.4  Damis  admired  the  Ephe¬ 
sians,  with  all  their  faults,  and  he  was  enamored  with 


supported  by  127  columns  of  marble 
60  feet  high.  It  was  200  years  in 
building,  and  was  burned  by  Ero- 
stratus  and  rebuilt  with  equal  splen¬ 
dor  and  beauty. 

1  Apollonius  de  Tyane  (  Chassang), 

p.  141. 

2  The  boundary  of  the  temple  of 
Diana  was  an  asylum,  a  refuge  for 
fugitives  from  justice  or  vengeance 
(Tep.£VO<;),  and  it  had  beenfrom  time 
to  time  extended,  until  it  embraced  a 
large  portion  of  the  city  with  Xysta. 
Augustus,  comprehending  the  evils 
growing  out  of  this  exemption,  con¬ 
tracted  the  boundaries  and  built  a 
wall  around  the  temple. 

3  Re'ville,  p.  28. 

4  Lecky’s  Hist,  of  European  Mor¬ 
als,  vol.  i.  p.  350.  “Apollonius 
was  admired  at  Ephesus ;  the  devils 
themselves  contributed  to  his  popu¬ 
larity  by  their  oracles,  which  they 
gave  out  in  his  favor.  It  is  claimed 
that  he  reclaimed  the  city  from  idle¬ 


ness,  from  a  love  of  dancing,  and 
from  other  fooleries  to  which  it  was 
addicted,  and  that  he  endeavored  to 
bring  the  inhabitants  to  be  friendly 
to  one  another.  He  labored  in  like 
manner  in  the  other  cities  of  Ionia, 
to  reform  the  manners  of  the  people, 
and  to  establish  unity  amongst  them. 
For  the  devil,  whom  some  of  the 
fathers  had  called  the  ‘  ape  of  God,’ 
and  who  would  be  well  contented 
that  men  should  be  a  little  more 
regular  in  their  outward  behavior, 
providing  they  were  but  impious  in 
neglecting  the  worship  of  God,  at¬ 
tempted  by  his  agent,  Apollonius,  to 
undo  what  Jesus  Christ  had  accom¬ 
plished  by  his  apostles, —  the  refor¬ 
mation  of  manners  by  the  preaching 
of  the  gospel.” — An  Account  of  the 
Life  of  Apollonius,  by  M.  Lenain 
de  Tillemont  (London,  1702),  p.  14 ; 
see  Phylostratus  de  Vita  Apollonii 
Tyanei  Scriptor  Luculentus ,  a  Phil- 
ippo  Beroaldo  Casiigatus  (1502). 


88 


APOLLONIUS 


their  city,  which  he  describes  as  being  built  upon 
a  fine  plain,  stretching  westward  forty  stadia  to  the 
sea.  To  the  north  of  the  main  way  on  the  campania, 
between  Mounts  Coressus  and  Solmissus,  was  the  sacred 
precinct  and  the  famous  temple  of  Diana  of  the  Ephe¬ 
sians,1  the  most  magnificent  edifice  on  earth.  The 
great  aqueduct  which  was  to  convey  water  to  Ephesus 
from  Mount  Magnesia  was  not  yet  completed,  and  the 
Stadium,  near  the  Coressian  Gate,  was  also  in  process 
of  construction.  Apollonius  was  received  everywhere 


1  Travels  of  Anterior,  vol.  iii. 
p.  329. 

The  importance  paid  to  the  wor¬ 
ship  of  Diana  of  the  Ephesians  is 
evidenced  by  the  great  number  of 
Ephesian  coins  and  medals  bear¬ 
ing  her  image;  it  was  styled 
’E^ESION,  chief  city  of  all  Asia, 
on  coins  and  medals,  and  Diana,  the 
greatest  of  all  the  gods.  A  bee  was 
always  the  symbol  of  Diana ;  as  early 
as  the  middle  of  the  fifth  century 
B.  c.,  the  Ephesian  Artemis  was 
symbolized  by  a  bee,  and  the  city 
of  Rhodes  has  two  specimens  with 
the  same  symbol,  also  Cnidus,  and 
Smyrna,  and  Syracuse;  this  is  a 
proof  of  the  alliance  between  these 
four  cities.  The  same  symbol  was 
found  on  the  coins  of  Croton  in  Italy 
B.  c.  389.  Philostratus  says  that 
when  the  Athenians  led  their  colony 
to  found  the  city  of  Ephesus  the 
Muses,  in  form  of  bees,  flew  about 
them,  directing  the  course  of  the 
fleet.  Hence  this  symbol  on  Ephe¬ 
sian  coin.  There  is  an  extant 
Ephesian  coin  bearing  the  image  of 


Septimius  Severus,  another  of  Jupi- 
per,  but  all  bearing  the  image  of 
Diana.  There  is  a  coin  of  Ephesus, 
also  of  Athens,  bearing  a  stag,  and 
Diana,  significant  of  the  Elaphobo- 
lia,  wherein  a  pair  of  stags  were 
sacrificed  to  Diana.  The  coins  of 
Ephesus  are  numerous,  and  confirm 
many  alliances  with  many  cities  of 
Asia,  principally  for  commercial  pur¬ 
poses. —  Para  Magnce  Grcecice  num- 
ismata  nunc  curante  Georgio  Vol- 
chamero  denuo  recusa  ( 1683).  Great 
confusion  has  been  occasioned  by 
some  Greek  historians  interpreting 
Melissce ,  MsXiaoa,  Bee. —  Inman’s 
Ancient  Faiths,  vol.  ii.  p.  351.  He¬ 
rodotus  says  that  all  the  northern  side 
of  the  Danube  was  occupied  by  bees. 
Jove,  also,  upon  Mount  Ida,  was 
said  to  have  been  nourished  by  bees. 
The  building  of  the  temple  of  Del¬ 
phi  the  second  time  wras  by  bees. 
The  Melissse  were  the  attendants 
upon  Demeter  and  Persephone,  and 
hence  when  they  migrated  or  in¬ 
troduced  their  rites  it  was  misinter¬ 
preted  into  the  doings  of  bees. 


OF  TYANA. 


89 


with  demonstrations  of  joy  and  reverence  ;  the  people 
flocked  to  hear  him,  and  many  were  benefited  by  his 
preaching.1 


1  Philostratus  claims  that  pagan¬ 
ism  at  Ephesus,  Antioch,  Smyrna, 
Corinth,  and  Athens  (all  claimed- 
to  have  been  Christian  centers  in 
Paul’s  day)  was  remodeled  and  re¬ 
formed  through  the  preaching  of 
Apollonius,  and  that  churches  and 
bishops  were  established  there  long 
before  Paul’s  time.  All  this  seems 
quite  rational  enough  when  we  con¬ 
sider  that  there  is  no  account  of  any 
Christian  teachers  visiting  Rome, 
Ephesus,  Antioch,  etc.,  prior  to 
Paul.  And  yet  Paul  addresses 
large  congregations  and  prosperous 
churches  there.  What  churches  ? 
There  is  no  evidence  outside  of 
merely  Paul’s  word  or  the  interpo¬ 
lator  that  these  churches,  bishops, 
deacons,  presbyters  were  Christians; 
on  the  contrary,  they  appear  to  be 
strongly  pagan.  For  Paul  refers  to 
their  institutions  as  of  long  stand¬ 
ing  and  of  no  novelty.  (Christian 
churches  and  other  evidences  of 
Christianity  at  Ephesus  discovered 
by  Mr.  Wood  do  not  antedate  the 
ninth  century.)  Nor  were  they 
being  demolished  and  the  inmates 
burned,  as  Paul  (or  his  interpola¬ 
tors)  declares  was  the  fate  of  all  the 
churches.  Philo  Judeas  speaks  of 
these  things  as  of  long  established 
notoriety  and  venerable  antiquity  in 
his  day,  A.  D.  3  7,  and  Philo  wrote 
before  Josephus,  and  when  Jesus 
was  not  more  than  15  years  of  age. 
Philo  was  a  member  of  a  relig¬ 


ious  community,  having  parishes, 
churches,  bishops,  priests,  and  dea¬ 
cons,  pretending  to  have  apostolic 
founders,  using  scriptures  which 
they  believed  to  be  divinely  inspired, 
and  which  Eusebius  himself  believed 
to  be  nothing  else  than  the  substance 
of  the  gospels.  They  also  had  mis¬ 
sionary  stations  and  colonies  at 
Rome,  Corinth,  Galatia,  Ephesus, 
Philippi,  Colossae,  and  Thessalo- 
nica;  all  this  was  nothing  new  in 
Philo’s  day.  This  was  probably  as 
early  as  A.  D.  18.  Now  it  is  infi¬ 
nitely  absurd,  nay  it  is  absolutely 
impossible,  that  a  body  of  ignorant 
believers  in  a  new  and  alien  religion 
of  an  alien  and  despised  race  had 
formed  themselves  into  such  wealthy 
and  powerful  church  organization 
amid  the  most  violent  persecutions 
and  martyrdoms.  Paul  writes  “  I 
beseech  Euodias  and  beseech  Syn- 
tyche  that  they  be  of  the  same  mind 
in  the  Lord,  and  I  intreat  thee  also, 
true  yokefellow,  help  those  women 
which  labored  with  me  in  the  gos¬ 
pel,”  etc. — Phil.  iv.  2,  3.  There 
is  no  pretense  that  the  earliest 
Christian  gospel  appeared  sooner 
than  sixteen  years  after  this,  and 
yet  Paul  declares  that  he  was  made 
a  minister  of  the  gospel  which  had 
already  been  preached  to  every 
creature  under  heaven. —  Col.  i.  23. 
“  The  brethren  which  are  with  me 
greet  you.  All  the  saints  salute 
you,  chiefly  they  that  are  of  Caesar’s 


12 


go 


APOLLONIUS 


The  priests  and  oracles  of  Colophon  and  of  Didymus 
and  of  Pergamus  had  already  declared  in  his  favor, 


household.” — Phil.  iv.  22.  It  must 
be  a  source  of  infinite  amusement 
to  the  man  of  learning  to  read  the 
article  on  Episcopacy,  by  Rev. 
Canon  Venables,  in  Encyclopedia 
Brit.  Its  evident  effort  at  disguis¬ 
ing  truth  or  its  utterance  of  willful 
falsehood  is  too  apparent  to  deceive 
the  most  ordinary  scholar.  This  is 
the  Canon’s  contribution  to  the 
cause.  Now,  if  what  the  Christians 
claim  be  true  of  Nero,  Vespasian, 
and  Domitian,  I  submit  that  Caesar’s 
household  must  have  been  a  highly 
uncomfortable  dwelling-place  for 
Christian  saints. 

From  the  epistles  of  Paul  we 
learn  that  in  the  two  great  cities  of 
Ephesus  and  Philippi,  also  on  the 
island  of  Crete,  and  in  fact  through¬ 
out  all  Asia  Minor,  there  were 
well  organized  and  matured  Chris¬ 
tian  communities,  bishops,  deacons, 
presbyters,  ministering  and  govern¬ 
ing  under  the  ancient  forms  and 
ceremonies  of  churches  which  ap¬ 
pear  to  be  held  in  both  royal  and 
popular  favor  ;  while  from  the  same 
authority  we  learn  that  the  empe¬ 
rors  were  torturing  and  burning 
every  man,  woman,  and  child  who 
was  suspected  of  entertaining  Chris¬ 
tian  doctrines.  These  epistles  need 
revision.  And  again,  the  incredibly 
short  space  of  time  in  which  these 
things  were  accomplished,  places  the 
account  entirely  without  the  pale  of 
even  possibility. 

Before  the  pretended  date  of  any 


one  of  the  gospels  which  have  come 
to  us,  before  any  one  of  the  disciples 
had  suffered  martyrdom,  before  any 
one  of  them  had  completed  his  mis¬ 
sion,  we  find  a  spiritual  dynasty 
established,  exercising  the  most  tre¬ 
mendous  authority  ever  grasped  by 
man,  not  merely  over  the  lives  and 
fortunes,  minds,  and  persons,  but 
over  their  prospective  eternal  desti¬ 
nies.  We  find  (by  the  Christian 
record)  a  church  at  Rome,  Corinth, 
Galatia,  Ephesus,  Philippi,  Co- 
lossae,  and  Thessalonica,  rooted  and 
grounded  in  the  faith,  called  of 
Jesus  Christ,  in  everything  enriched, 
in  all  utterances  and  in  all  knowl¬ 
edge,  beloved  of  God  and  in  favor 
with  the  king.  And  if  an  apostle 
himself  or  an  angel  from  heaven 
preach  any  other  gospel  than  that 
which  they  had  received  let  him  be 
accursed. —  Gal.  i.  8,  9. 

Christian  churches  did  not  begin 
to  appear  until  the  time  of  Alexan¬ 
der  Severus,  A.  D.  220. — Der  Fall 
des  Herdenthurus ,  von  Dr.  H.  G. 
Tschinier,  8vo.  (Leipsig,  1829). 

Histoire  de  la  Destruction  de  Pa¬ 
ganism  e  en  l’ Occident,  ouvrage  cou- 
ronne  par  l’Academie  Royale  des 
Inscriptions  et  Belles  Lettres,enl’an- 
nee  1832,  par  A.  Beugnot,  de  l’lnsti- 
tut  de  France,  2  tomes  (Paris,  1835). 

And  then  again,  how  account  for 
the  ignorance  of  the  Ephesian 
Christians,  “  grounded  in  the  faith,” 
as  Paul  informs  us,  which  is  so  mani¬ 
fest  in  their  answer  to  Paul’s  ques- 


OF  TYANA. 


91 


and  all  persons  who  stood  in  need  of  assistance  were 
commanded  by  the  oracle  to  repair  to  Apollonius,  such 


tion,  "  Have  ye  received  the  Holy 
Ghost  since  ye  believed  ?  ”  And 
they  said  unto  him,  “  We  have  not 
so  much  as  heard  whether  there  be 
any  Holy  Ghost.” — Acts  xix.  2. 
This  certainly  is  no  evidence  of 
high  Christian  culture  among  the 
brethren  at  Ephesus.  We  must 
conclude  that  the  Christianity  of 
the  Ephesians  in  Paul’s  and  Apol¬ 
lonius’s  day  was  of  a  very  base  coin¬ 
age.  For  if  the  Holy  Ghost  or  the 
Ghost  especially  to  whom  the  Chris¬ 
tian  neophyte  owes  primordial  alle¬ 
giance  was  unknown  to  these  new 
converts,  then  I  am  unable  to  clas¬ 
sify  their  Christianity. 

Paul  writes  to  Timothy,  A.  D.  58 
(according  to  Conybeare  and  How- 
son),  2  Timothy  iii.  15,  and  in  that 
letter  tells  Timothy  that  “  from  a 
child  thou  hast  known  the  holy 
scriptures  which  are  able  to  make 
thee  wise  unto  salvation  through 
faith  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus.” 
These  things  look  very  strange,  and 
either  Paul  was,  or  we  are,  mistaken 
about  their  truth.  There  is  no  pos¬ 
sible  escape  from  it. 

In  an  analysis  of  the  character  of 
Paul  as  given  to  us  in  the  revealed 
word,  we  find  him  a  strange  com¬ 
pound  of  paganism  by  birth,  Juda¬ 
ism  by  artfulness,  and  a  Christian  I 
wonderfully  suspect  by  interpolation 
and  literary  touchings  of  the  records 
by  subsequent  revelators.  Tarsus, 
the  birthplace  of  Paul,  was  not  a 
Jewish  but  a  Roman  town.  Paul  is 


not  a  Jewish  but  a  Roman  name, 
and  the  protestation  of  Paul  that 
“  my  manner  of  life  was  first  among 
mine  own  nation  at  Jerusalem,  know 
all  the  Jews;  which  knew  me  from 
the  beginning,  if  they  would  testify, 
that  after  the  straitest  sect  of  our 
religion  I  lived  a  Pharisee,” — Acts 
xxvi.  4,  5, —  needs  attestation,  for  he 
confesses  that  the  Jupiter  of  Aratus, 
the  poet,  was  the  god  whom  he 
adored. 

Would  not  one  suppose  from 
reading  the  account  of  Paul  that 
the  great  storm  of  persecution  had 
already  passed,  to  see  stately  edi¬ 
fices  erected  for  the  public  worship 
of  God,  with  a  great  number  of  eccle¬ 
siastical  offices  ?  On  the  contrary  we 
are  told  that  during  the  Apostolicage, 
and  long  after,  the  Christians  wan¬ 
dered  about  in  deserts  and  mount¬ 
ains,  in  dens  and  caves  of  the  earth, 
being  destitute,  afflicted,  and  tor¬ 
mented. 

Their  sacred  rites,  we  are  told, 
were  performed  with  the  utmost 
plainness  and  simplicity  and  in  se¬ 
cret  and  obscure  places,  sometimes 
at  cemeteries  or  graves  of  the  mar¬ 
tyrs.  These  epistles  of  Paul  do  not 
dovetail  with  the  facts  of  this  age  as 
taken  from  all  other  sources.  There 

A 

is  not  a  single  authority,  Christian 
or  otherwise,  that  there  were  edi¬ 
fices  designedly  for  the  use  of  the 
Christians,  for  it  was  a  common  ob¬ 
jection  against  the  Christian  in  the 
mouth  of  every  pagan,  Templa  non 


92 


A POLL  ONI  US 


being  the  will  of  Apollo  and  the  Fates.1  Embassies 
were  sent  from  all-  the  principal  cities  of  Ionia  offering 
him  rights  of  hospitality.  Smyrna  sent  embassadors, 
who,  when  questioned  for  a  reason  of  the  invitation, 
replied,  “To  see  you,  Apollonius,  and  be  seen  by  you.” 
“  Then,”  said  Apollonius,  “I  will  come;  our  curiosity 
is  mutual.”  In  visiting  the  temples,  advising  with  the 
priests,  and  lecturing  to  the  people,  Apollonius  spent 
his  time  at  Ephesus.2  He  also  traveled  into  other  places 
of  Ionia  adjacent  to  Ephesus,  always  addressing  the 
people.  He  then  departed  for  Smyrna,  three  hundred 
and  sixty  stadia  from  Ephesus,  a  two-and-a-half-days’ 
journey,  and  as  he  drew  near  unto  the  city,  the  Ionians, 
who  were  engaged  in  their  Panionian  festival,3  came  out 
to  meet  him.4  He  found  the  people  given  up  to  idle 


habent ,  non  aras,  non  altaria ,  non 
simulacra ,  even  a  long  time  after 
the  Apostolic  age,  and  the  apologists 
themselves  admit  this  to  be  true. 
A  remarkable  passage  in  Isidore 
Pelusiota,  in  which  he  expressly  af¬ 
firms  that  there  were  no  churches 
in  the  Apostolic  age ;  and  as  to  offi¬ 
cers  of  the  church  spoken  of  by 
Paul,  neither  Clemens  nor  Ignatius 
nor  Polycarp  nor  Justin  Martyr 
nor  Ireneus  appears  to  have  known 
anything  about  them. — A  Discourse 
on  the  Pretended  Apostolic  Constitu¬ 
tions,  etc.,  etc.,  by  Robt.  Turner, 
M.  A.,  vicar  of  St.  Peter’s  in  Col¬ 
chester  (London,  1715). 

1  Benuick,  p.  189;  General  Bio¬ 
graphical  Dictionary  of  the  Most 
Eminent  Persons  of  Every  Nation, 
by  Alexander  Chalmers,  32  vols., 
art.  Apollonius. 


2  DA  ussy,  vol.  i.  p.  243;  Ber¬ 
wick,  p.  189;  Chassang,  p.  141 ; 
The  French  Translation  of  Blount, 
vol.  iv.  p.  80. 

3  Apollonius  de  Tyane  (Chassang), 

P-  143- 

4  The  festival  in  which  none  but 
Ionians  were  allowed  to  participate 
(Larcher’s  Notes  on  Herodotus,  vol. 
i.  c.  ii.  16. )  It  was  instituted  in  honor 
of  Neptune,  sur named  Helicon,  from 
Helice,  a  city  of  Achaia. 

Of  Pergamus,  Smyrna,  Sardis, 
Philadelphia,  and  Laodicea,  next  to 
nothing  is  known  during  the  period 
from  240  B.  C.  to  A.  D.  700,  except 
a  rambling  ecclesiastical  history, 
principally  relating  to  saints,  won¬ 
ders,  and  miracles. — Haydn’s  Die. 
of  Dates . 

Cf.  Encyc.  Brit.,  Ephesus,  Smyr¬ 
na,  and  Pergamus. 


OF  TYANA. 


93 


disputings,  and  much  divided  in  their  opinions  upon  all 
subjects  which  tended  for  the  public  welfare  and  the 
good  government  of  the  city.  He  exhorted  them  in 
their  disputes  to  vie  with  each  other  in  giving  the  best 
advice  or  in  discharging  most  faithfully  the  duties  of 
citizens,  in  beautifying  their  city  with  works  of  art  and 
graceful  buildings,  advising  them  that  beautiful  cities 
resemble  the  statue  of  Jupiter  Olympus  which  Phidias 
had  made,  or  the  elegant  work  of  Cleanthes,  the  Co¬ 
rinthian,  or  of  Polycletus,  or  the  fabulous  works  of 
Daedalus,1  always  beautiful  and  artistic,  and  giving  joy 
and  culture  to  the  beholder. 

The  natural  advantages  of  the  situation  of  Smyrna 
for  trade  called  forth  the  commendations  of  Apollo¬ 
nius  ;  but  it  had  been  subjected  to  most  prodigious 
earthquakes,  and  had  been  nearly  destroyed  during 
the  reign  of  Tiberius. 

Apollonius  delivered  many  discourses  at  Smyrna, 
always  confining  himself  to  such  topics  as  were  most 
useful  to  his  hearers.  He  was  the  guest  of  Theron 
the  elder,  of  Smyrna,  a  stoic  and  an  astronomer. 
Smyrna,  Cnidus,  and  Pergamus  were  the  chief  centers 
of  learning  in  these  days,  and  the  great  schools  were 
at  Cos,  at  Cnidus,  at  Pergamus,  and  Smyrna.  Hip¬ 
pocrates,  whose  writings  won  for  him  from  his  succes¬ 
sors  the  title  of  “The  Divine  Old  Man,”  2  and  from  the 
moderns  that  of  the  “  Father  of  Medicine,”  was  a 

1  Dissertation  on  Grecian  Mythol-  physician,  the  seventeenth  lineal 

ogy,  etc.  (Musgrave,  1782,  London);  descendant  from  iEsculapius.  His 
also,  cf.  Strabo ,  xiv.  p.  641.  mother  was  Phenerata,  the  eight- 

2  “The  Prince  of  Medicine,”  eenth  in  descent  from  Hercules. 
“The  Father  of  Physic,”  “The  In  his  family  there  were  seven  phy- 
Oracle  of  Cos.”  His  father  was  a  sicians  named  Hippocrates. 


94 


APOLLONIUS 


native  of  Cos.  Praxagoras,  who  wrote  on  the  pulse, 
was  also  a  native  of  Cos,  as  well  as  Nicander,  Theo- 
phrastos,  Chrysippus,  and  Polybius,1  who  established 
the  rival  sect  of  Dogmatici.  Praxiteles  was  from 
Cnidus ;  Pythagoras  came  from  Samos ;  Anaxagoras, 
the  friend  and  master  of  Pericles,  Euripides,  and  Soc¬ 
rates,  were  all  of  Chios.  Archimedes,2  whose  name  is 
still  pronounced  with  gratitude  and  veneration,  was  a 
native  of  Syracuse  (b.  c.  287),  as  was  Philistus ;  and 
Diodorus  Siculus  was  also  a  Sicilian. 

At  this  time  embassadors  came  from  Ephesus  to 
Apollonius,  entreating  him  to  return  to  them  as  their 
physician,  for  the  plague  was  now  raging  in  that  city. 
During  his  former  residence  there  he  had  warned 
these  Ephesians  of  the  danger  threatening  them  from 
this  disease  through  the  uncleanliness  of  their  city ; 
but  deeming  it  best  not  to  delay  his  journey  in  their 
distress,  although  he  felt  aggrieved  at  their  disregard 
of  his  warning,  he  proceeded  at  once  to  Ephesus. 
As  soon  as  he  arrived  he  harangued  the  people,  charg¬ 
ing  them  not  to  be  dejected,  but  to  keep  up  their 
spirits,  and  he  would  that  day  put  a  check  upon  the 
disease.3  After  having  stayed  the  ravages  of  the 


1  Son-in-law  to  Hippocrates. 

2  He,  too,  treated  the  quadrature 
of  the  circle,  and  determined  the 
ratio  of  the  circumference  within 
.0012  of  the  truth,  and  wrote  on 
conoids,  spheroids,  and  cylinders, 
and  came  as  near  the  discovery  of 
differential  calculus  as  was  possible 
without  the  aid  of  algebra. 

3  “There  is  no  need  of  remarks/’ 
says  Lardner,  “upon  so  silly  a  story. 


Justly  does  Eusebius  say  that  Phil- 
ostratus’s  account  of  Apollonius’s 
miracles  is  inconsistent  and  there¬ 
fore  altogether  incredible.” 

Ne  trouvant  aucun  remede  a  op- 
poser  au  fleau,  les  Ephesiens  envoy- 
erent  des  deputes  a  Apollonius,  dont 
ils  esperaient  leur  guerison.  Apol¬ 
lonius  ne  crut  pas  devoir  differer: 
“Allons,”  dit-il,  et  au  meme  instant 
il  fut  a  iLphese,  sans  doute  pour 


OF  TYANA. 


95 


plague,  in  commemoration  of  which  the  Ephesians 
consecrated  to  him  a  statue  under  the  title  of  Hercules 
Alexicacus,1  he  departed,  and  visited  many  places  in 
Ionia,  giving  the  people  such  advice  as  he  deemed 
necessary  for  their  benefit,  and  for  the  benefit  of  their 
temples  and  their  gods.  But  becoming  weary  of  this 
monotonous  life,2  and  impatient  for  seeing  Greece,  he 
began  making  preparations  for  an  early  departure  for 
Athens,  not,  however,  without  first  paying  his  respects 
to  ancient  Pergamus,3  noted  for  being  the  most  emi¬ 
nent  seat  of  learning  in  the  world  at  this  time.  He 
visited  localities  rendered  sacred  to  him  as  once  hav¬ 
ing  been  familiar  to  Crates,  the  stoic  and  philosopher, 
who  lived  and  taught  here ;  and  it  was  here  also  that 
Galen,  the  most  celebrated  of  all  the  pagan  philos- 


imiter  Pythagore,  qui  s’etait  trouvd 
en  m£me  temps  a  Thurium  et  a  Meta- 
ponte.  II  rassembla  les  £phesiens 
et  leur  dit :  “  Rassurez-vous  des 
aujourd’hui  je  vais  arr£ter  le 
fleau.”  II  dit  et  mena  la  multitude 
au  theatre,  a  l’endroit  ou  se  trouve 
aujourd’hui  une  statue  d’Hercule. 
—  Chassang’s  Apollonius  de  Tyane , 
etc.,  p.  146. 

1  Lactantius,  a  Latin  father  of  the 
third  century,  says  the  Ephesians 
nevertheless  consecrated  a  statue  to 
Apollonius,  under  the  title  of  Her¬ 
cules  Saviour,  in  commemoration 
of  his  having  delivered  them  from 
the  plague. 

2  Apollonius  continued  in  Ephe¬ 
sus,  Smyrna,  etc.,  from  A.  D.  50  to 
59,  and  was  in  Rome  from  A.  D.  63 
to  A.  D.  66.  The  accounts  of  Paul 


say  that  he  was  in  Ionia  and  Greece, 
A.  D.  53  ;  in  Ephesus,  A.  D.  54,  and 
again,  from  56  to  58 ;  in  Rome  in 
A.  D.  65  and  66. —  Hist.  Christian 
Church,  by  John  H.  Newman,  vol. 
i.  p.  348,  etc. 

3  The  kingdom  of  Pergamus, 
famous  in  its  day,  was  founded  by 
Philetasrus,  a  eunuch,  whom  Lysim- 
achushad  made  governor  of  the  place 
and  guardian  of  his  treasures.  He 
was  succeeded  by  Eumenes  I.,  B.  c. 
263.  The  kingdom  at  this  period 
embraced  nearly  all  of  Asia  Minor. 
It  was  one  of  the  great  kingdoms  of 
the  East.  It  became  a  Roman  prov¬ 
ince,  B.  c.  159. —  Cf  Abbe  Sevin, 
Recherches  sur  les  Rois  de  Pergame , 
Memoir es  de  V  Academie  des  Inscrip¬ 
tions,  vol.  xii.  (Paris,  1829),  4to ; 
Clinton’s  Kings  of  Pergamus. 


96 


APOLLONIUS 


ophers,  was  born  (13 1  A.  D.) 1  It  was  also  the  native 
city  of  the  physician  Oribasius,  a  pagan  and  friend  of 
Julian,  who  was  banished  by  Valentinian,  A.  D.  370,  and 
here  Scipio  died.  Pergamus  possessed  an  enormous 
library,  although  eighty  years  before  the  visit  of 
Apollonius1 2  Marc  Antony  had  robbed  it  of  200,000 
volumes  and  deposited  them  in  the  temple  of  Serapis 
at  Alexandria  to  gratify  the  passion  of  his  enchantress 
Cleopatra  for  literature.3  At  Pergamus  Apollonius 
performed  worship  in  the  temple  of  Aesculapius,  with 
which  he  was  much  pleased.  He  also  discoursed  there 
in  the  temple  of  Athena  Pallas,  the  patron  goddess  of 
the  city.  Pergamus  continued  to  rank  with  Ephesus 
and  Smyrna  as  one  of  the  three  great  cities  of  the 
province  until  the  time  of  Nero.4  After  Apollonius 


1  Claudius  Galen  was  a  Roman 
and  pagan,  born  in  Pergamus,  A.  D. 
13 1.  He  remodeled  the  works  of 
Hippocrates  and  added  much  to 
them.  He  detested  Epicureanism, 
and  was  of  the  same  school  as 
Apollonius. —  Cf.  his  works  :  De 
Usu  Partium ,  De  Locis  Affectis,  and 
Ars  Medica  ;  see  also  P.  Watson’s 
Medical  Profession,  p.  161. 

2  The  exportation  of  papyrus  from 
Egypt  had  been  prohibited  by  Ptol¬ 
emy  Philadelphus,  to  prevent  Eu- 
menes,  king  of  Pergamus,  increasing 
his  libraries  (b.  c.  263).  Eumenes 
turned  his  attention  to  parchment, 
and  so  improved  it  for  making  into 
books  that  little  or  no  change  has 
taken  place  in  it  to  the  present. — 
Technical  History  of  Commerce,  etc. , 
by  John  Yeats,  LL.  D.  (London, 
1872),  p.  77. 

3  The  coins  of  Pergamus,  the  de¬ 


vice  of  which  was  an  Eagle  on  a 
Thunderbolt,  confirm  the  data  of  all 
her  historic  kings  from  Eumenes 
1st.  All  these  coins  are  beautifully 
executed,  and  were  issued  from  Au¬ 
gustus,  extending  long  into  that 
period  of  the  history  of  Pergamus 
of  which  we  have  no  records.  They 
have  Latin  inscriptions.  Some  bear 
the  name  and.  device  of  Mytilene, 
proving  an  alliance  between  these 
towns.  There  is  a  Cornelian  gem 
extant  bearing  the  portrait  of  Per¬ 
gamus,  the  founder  of  the  city,  and 
a  bronze  medal  of  Pergamus  the 
younger. 

4  Excavations  made  on  the  site 
of  this  ancient  city,  by  the  Prussian 
government,  have  disclosed  many 
buildings  on  the  Acropolis,  and 
among  them  the  temple  of  Athena 
and  the  temple  dedicated  to  Au¬ 
gustus. — Bohn  and  Humann . 


OF  TVANA. 


97 


had  suggested  many  things  to  the  worshipers  and 
priests  of  the  various  temples  concerning  maladies,  he 
departed  for  Ilium,  a  three  days’  journey  from  Per- 
gamus. 

While  at  Ilium  he  was  moved  by  a  divine  emotion ; 
this  sacred  territory,  sanctified  by  the  achievements  of 
illustrious  heroes,  filled  him  with  veneration,  and  while 
his  mind  was  in  this  humor  of  reverence  for  the  fallen 
brave,  he  repaired  to  the  tombs  of  the  Achaeans,  invoked 
the  gods,  and  sacrificed  to  that  noble  band  of  heroes. 
Of  all  the  chiefs  of  the  Grecian  army,  those  which  inspired 
the  highest  respect  in  Homer  were  the  Achaeans.  To  that 
race  belong  the  Atudae,  Achilles,  Ulysses,  Diomedes, 
and  Nestor.1  Apollonius  proposed  to  spend  one  night 
in  the  tomb  of  Achilles,2  in  order  to  ascertain  from  the 
shades  of  that  hero  where  Palamedes  was  buried  ;  and 
for  this  purpose  they  set  out  from  Ilium  on  foot,  down 


1  The  Achaean  League  affords 
probably  the  most  perfect  example 
of  all  antiquity  of  the  federal  form 
of  government,  and,  allowing  for 
difference  of  time  and  place,  its  re¬ 
semblance  to  that  of  the  United 
States  government  is  very  remark¬ 
able. — 'Cf  Freeman’s  Federal  Gov¬ 
ernment,  2  vols.  (1863);  Comparative 
Politics  (New  York,  1873)  ;  Droysen 
Geschichte  des  Ilellensincies,  2  vols. ; 
Ilelwing  Geschichte  des  Achaeschen 
(Bunder). 

2  Philostratus  has  not  so  much  as 
suggested  a  doubt  concerning  the 
tomb  of  Achilles  being  at  Troas. 
The  number  of  writers  who  have 
written  to  disprove  the  facts  stated 
in  Homer  concerning  the  war  of 
Troy  —  of  Helen,  Paris,  Achilles  — 

13 


is  quite  great.  Anaxagoras,  a  philos¬ 
opher  born  in  the  70th  Olympiad, 
and  quoted  by  Diogenes  Laertius, 
was  the  first  skeptic  on  this  subject. 
There  were  others  after  him,  as 
Metrodorus,  Diogenes  Laertius, 
Ilesijch,  Totian,  and  a  writer  in 
Athenaeus,  of  whom  we  know  noth¬ 
ing  ;  Basil  Magnus,  an  author  of 
the  lower  ages  of  the  Roman  em¬ 
pire. —  Jacob  Bryant,  in  his  work 
entitled,  A  Dissertation  Concerning 
the  War  of  Troy ,  and  the  Expedi¬ 
tion  of  the  Greeks ,  etc.  (a.  d.  1796). 
The  authors  who  seem  to  favor 
the  story  among  the  ancients  are 
Hesiod,  Pindar,  Tryphiodorus,  Cal¬ 
limachus,  yEschylus,  Sophocles, 
Euripides,  Lycophron,  and  Philos¬ 
tratus. 


98 


APOLLONIUS 


the  Simois  River,  and  on  the  first  night  made  their 
camp  at  the  confluence  of  the  Simois  and  the  Scaman- 
der  Rivers,  on  the  plains  of  Troy,  near  where  the  army 
of  Xerxes  passed  on  its  way  to  Abydos.  This  army 
and  cattle,  it  is  said,  “  drank  the  Scamander  dry,  the 
Simois  being  muddy.”  The  next  day  they  arrived  at 
Sigaeum,  on  the  Hellespont,  convenient  to  which  are 
located  the  tombs  and  mausolea  of  Patrocles  and 
Achilles.  The  Dioscoridae  (Aioaxopoc),1  who  had  now 
become  his  friends  and  followers,  endeavored  to  dis¬ 
suade  him  from  his  purpose  of  spending  a  night  in  the 
tomb,  assuring  him  that  death  would  be  the  penalty  of 
such  rashness  and  impiety.  “  But,”  said  Apollonius, 
“Achilles  2  still  loves  conversation  and  pleasant  stories; 
when  alive  he  was  very  fond  of  the  Pylian  Nestor, 
who  always  told  him  something  interesting.  He  used 
to  call  old  Phoenix  his  foster-father  and  companion,  and 
other  endearing  appellations,  because  he  told  to  h?m 
facetious  tales.  Even  Priam,  his  mortal  enemy,  he 
regarded  with  admiration  when  he  heard  him  speak,3 
and  it  is  my  determination  to  talk  with  him,  with  more 
pleasure  than  ever  did  his  friends  of  old ; 4  and  should 
he  kill  me  I  shall  have  the  honor  of  reposing  with 
Memnon  and  Cycnus,  and  I  doubt  not  Troy  will 


1  Also  called  Corybantes,  Curetes, 
Idaei,  Dactyli,  and  Telchines.  The 
places  where  they  worshiped  pre¬ 
vailed  over  Italy,  Crete,  Samothrace, 
and  Troas. 

2  Mythology  and  Fables  of  the  An¬ 
cients  (Banier),  iv.  278. 

3  Apollonius  de  Tyane,  sa  Vie , 
ses  Voyages,  ses  Prodiges,  etc.,  par 

A.  Chassang,  p.  148. 


4  People  used  to  resort  there 
every  year  in  order  to  offer  up  sac¬ 
rifice  in  his  honor ;  and  a  tradition 
was  current  that  his  shade,  dressed 
in  armor,  was  accustomed  to  appear 
in  a  threatening  posture,  notwith¬ 
standing  which,  says  Bayle,  Apollo¬ 
nius  attempted  to  speak  to  it.  It  is 
related  that  miracles  were  wrought 
at  his  tomb. 


OF  TYANA. 


99 


honor  me  with  a  burial  as  honorable  as  that  given  to 
Nestor,  the  Pylian  sage.” 

Apollonius  carried  out  his  design,  and  his  com¬ 
panions  were  surprised  to  see  him  returning  the  next 
morning  safe  and  sound.  He  reported  that  to  the 
several  questions  which  he  was  permitted  to  ask,  he 
ascertained  that  Helen  was  never  carried  to  Troy  by 
Paris  as  stated  by  Homer,1  but  that  she  remained  in 
Egypt  at  the  house  of  Proteus,  king  of  Egypt,  to 
which  she  had  been  conveyed  by  Paris.2  He  also 
ascertained  that  the  reason  why  Homer  nowhere  men¬ 
tioned  Palamedes3  was  because  he  was  put  to  death4  to 
gratify  the  hatred  of  Ulysses,  and  Homer  did  not  like 
to  cast  reproach  on  the  character  of  the  crafty  son  of 
Laertes  and  Anticlea,  daughter  of  Antolychus.5  He 
also  learned  that  Palamedes  was  buried  at  Methymna, 
in  Lesbos,  on  the  extreme  northern  end  of  the  island, 
which  was  rendered  famous  as  being  the  birthplace  of 
Sappho  (XaTrcpo).)  6 


1  So  says  Herodotus,  Dion  Chry- 
sostom,  xi.  p.  162 ;  Tertullian  De 
Spectaculis ,  p.  290,  C ;  Photius ,  p. 
433  >  Strabo,  lib.  xiii.  p.  900. 

2  The  detention  of  Helen  by  Pro¬ 
teus  is  made  serviceable  in  one  of 
the  tragedies  of  Euripides.  A  very 
succinct  account  of  Helen  may  be 
found  in  Encyclopedia  Britannica, 
under  Helena ;  see,  also,  Paris  and 
Menelaus. 

3  Palamades  was  the  inventor  of 

scales,  measures,  chess,  dice,  and 

several  letters  of  the  Greek  alpha¬ 
bet.  He  joined  the  expedition 

against  Troy,  and  exposed  by  an 
ingenious  stratagem  the  feigned  in¬ 


sanity  of  Ulysses,  and  thereby 
incurred  his  enmity.  Palamedes 
was  convicted  of  treason,  and  put 
to  death. — ALneid,  lib.  ii.  80. 

4  The  manner  in  which  Ulysses 
procured  the  death  of  Palamedes  is 
uncertain.  Ovid  says  he  hid  some 
money  in  Palamedes’s  tent,  and  then 
had  him  condemned  by  a  council  of 
war  for  having  received  a  bribe  ; 
Pausanias  says  that  Ulysses  and 
Diomedes  pushed  him  in  the  water, 
and  held  him  under  until  drowned. 
— Banier ,  vol.  iv.  p.  290. 

5  Banier,  vol.  iv.  p.  389. 

6  Sappho,  a  contemporary  of  Al¬ 
caeus  and  Erinna,  has  rendered 


100 


APOLLONIUS 


Having  obtained  this,  his  most  desired  information, 
he  immediately  took  passage  for  Lesbos ;  the  wind  was 
fair  from  the  land,  and  the  ship  ready  to  sail.  But 
at  this  season  of  the  year  (autumn)  the  Aegean  sea 
was  not  much  to  be  trusted,  and  such  crowds  flocked  on 
board,  anxious  to  embark  with  Apollonius,  supposing 
that  he  had  power  over  fire  and  water  and  perils  of 
every  kind,  that  he  quietly  withdrew  to  another  vessel 
lying  at  anchor  near  the  tomb  of  Ajax,1  the  pilot  and 
master  of  which,  a  Rhodian,  was  engaged  in  the  corn 


Mytilene,  a  city  of  Lesbos,  noted 
for  all  time,  in  having  established  a 
literary  society  there,  consisting  en¬ 
tirely  of  women  (600  b.  c.),  who 
gathered  around  her  from  all  parts 
of  Greece.  There  was  another 
Sappho,  a  courtesan. — History  of 
Classical  Greek  Literature,  by  Rev. 
J.  P.  Mahaffy,  M.  A.,  2  vols.  ;  vol. 
i.  p.  20. 

A  I’epoque  de  Sapho  et  d’Alcee, 
les  cites  eoliennes  et  ioniennes 
avaient  encore  ces  moeurs  aristo- 
cratiques  qui  les  font  ressembler,  a 
beaucoup  d’egards,  a  la  republique 
de  Venise  du  temps  ou  le  noble 
Marcello  composait  pour  la  haute 
societe  du  Grand-Canal  les  psaumes 
qui  ont  rendu  son  nom  celebre  ;  les 
relations  sociales  y  etaient  libres 
et  faciles,  quelquefois  licencieuses 
inais  toujours  empreintes  d’ele- 
gance  et  de  cette  noblesse  de  mani- 
eres  qui  appartienne  aux  aristocra- 
ties.  Du  reste  le  climat  des  lies 
et  des  rivages  eoliens  est  d’une 
douceur  qui  tourne  a  la  mollesse, 
et  qui  engendre  aisement  la  volupt£ ; 


le  canal  de  Lesbos  est  eclaire  le 
soir  d’une  sauve  lumiere  et  parcouru 
sans  cessepar  des  brises  tiedes  mais 
non  enervantes  que  parfument  les 
arbustes  odoriferants  des  mon- 
tagnes.  Les  richesses  et  le  luxe 
de  l’Asie  abondaient  sur  ces  rivages 
et  donnaient  aux  nobles  Grecs  de 
ces  contrdes  ces  habitudes  de  lan- 
gueur  et  de  po£sie  passionnee,  dont 
nous  retrouvons  encore  quelque 
chose  dans  leurs  descendants  Ita- 
liens  et  Asiatiques. — M.  E.  Bur- 
nouf,  Literaticre  Grecque,  vol.  i. 
p.  194. 

1  Off  the  Rhetean  promontory,  on 
the  edge  of  a  sandy  shore,  the  sta¬ 
tion  of  Ajax  was  on  the  left  wing  of 
the  camp  at  Troy,  and  opposite  that 
of  Achilles ;  that  is  to  say,  it  was 
nearest  to  what  was  afterward  called 
the  Rhetean  promontory.  Antony, 
or  Pompey,  it  is  thought,  plundered 
the  tomb  of  Ajax  of  its  ashes,  and 
carried  them  to  Egypt.  Pausanias 
testifies  that  it  had  been  opened. — 
A  Vindicator  of  Homer,  etc.,  etc., 
by  J.  B.  S.  Morritt  (1798),  p.  104. 


OF  TV  AN  A. 


IOI 


trade,  and  was  bound  for  Alexandria,  in  Egypt.  On 
entering  the  Aegean  sea,  they  ran  down  the  coast  of 
Troas  before  a  strong  north  wind,  passing  in  sight  of  the 
tombs  of  Patroclus,  and  of  Antilochus,  and  Alexander 
of  Troy,  and  Penelaus,  the  last  at  Cape  Troas  ;  also  in 
sight  of  the  island  Tenedos,1  the  fatal  station  to  which 
the  Greeks  retired  with  their  fleet  for  concealment  while 
awaiting  the  result  of  their  stratagem  for  the  capture 
of  Troy. 

After  doubling  the  Trojan  promontory,  Apollonius 
bid  the  pilot  steer  for  ^Eolia,  over  against  Lesbos,  and 
to  make  it  by  coasting  near  to  Methymna,  situated  at 
the  extreme  north  end  of  the  island  of  Lesbos ;  at  this 
place  he  landed,  for  it  was  here  that  Achilles  told  him 
Palamedes  was  buried.  He  visited  the  locality,  and 
saw  the  tomb  and  the  fallen  statue  of  the  god,  and 
read  the  inscription  thereon  in  these  words,  “  To  the 
Divine  Palamedes.” 2  The  free  and  easy  manner  of 
the  people  of  Methymna3  did  not  accord  with  the 
austere  life  of  Apollonius ;  but  he  determined  to  re¬ 
main  there  until  he  could  restore  the  statue  to  its 
proper  place,  which  he  did,  and  erected  a  chapel  over 
it,  capable  of  containing  ten  guests ; 4  and,  after  hav¬ 
ing  performed  this  sacred  office,  deeming  his  stay  no 
longer  profitable,  he  made  the  following  prayer  at 
the  chapel,  and  departed  from  Methymna :  “  O  Pala¬ 
medes,  forget  the  just  anger  you  had  for  the  Greeks; 

1  Whence  issued  the  serpents  that  4  This  chapel  has  been  kept  in 
strangled  Laocoon  and  his  sons.  repair  by  various  pilgrims  and  ad- 

2  Apollonius  de  Tyane  (Chas-  mirers  from  the  time  of  Apollonius, 

sang),  p.  150.  and  was  standing  in  1854. —  New- 

3  Knight’s  Worship  of  the  Pria-  ton’s  Levant ,  vol.  i.  p.  347;  Ber- 

pus,  p.  105.  wick’s  Apollonius,  p.  200. 


102 


APOLLONIUS 


grant  them  prosperity  and  to  multiply  in  numbers,  and 
in  wisdom  accede  this,  O  Palamedes ;  from  whom 
comes  all  knowledge,  and  by  you  and  the  Muses  I 
live.”  1 

Thus,  while  Apollonius  was  performing  acts  of  vene¬ 
ration  to  the  memory  of  these  great  human  benefactors, 
in  one  corner  of  the  Roman  empire,  stirring  events 
were  taking  place  in  others.  In  Judea  a  new  procura¬ 
tor  had  been  appointed  named  Ventidius  Cumanus 
(a.  D.  51),  and  tumult  and  rioting  were  the  rule  of  the 
day — quiet  the  exception  at  Jerusalem.  The  Jews 
were  divided  into  parties  with  excessive  hate  for  each 
other,  and  the  innovation  of  the  Roman  soldier  was  no 
conciliatory  element.  Some  of  the  insurrectionists  or 
Jewish  leaders  who  aspired  to  be  kings  were  executed 


1  Cf.  A  rchives  des  Missions  Scien- 
tifiques  (Paris,  1856),  vol.  v.  pp. 
2  73-364- 

There  are  many  extant  coins  of 
the  island  of  Lesbos,  of  more  value, 
however,  to  the  enthusiast  than  to 
the  historian.  (There  are  some 
coins  very  much  prized  by  the  col¬ 
lector,  representing  the  rites  of  their 
tutelary  goddesses  in  a  manner  too 
explicit  for  description  here. )  There 
is  one  very  ancient  silver  coin  of 
Methymna,  with  the  type  of  a 
dolphin,  symbol  of,  and  sacred  to, 
Sappho  ;  another,  inedited,  with  the 
type  of  Arion  on  a  dolphin.  The 
general  device  of  the  Methymnian 
coin  was  “  The  Boar.”  The  lion’s 
head,  which  was  always  a  type 
of  Samian  coins,  was  also  a  type 
of  the  Lesbian  coins.  The  type  of 
bull’s  and  calf’s  head  was,  however, 


more  common.  Methymna  has  some 
very  interesting  coins  (to  the  collect¬ 
or)  in  silver,  with  the  boar  and  head 
of  Athene,  with  her  helmet  adorned 
by  a  Pegasus  rising  above  her  fore¬ 
head,  and  with  the  inscription  at 
full  length,  ME0TMNAIQN.  These 
are  indeed  curious,  but  too  ancient 
to  be  serviceable  in  illustrating  this 
inquiry,  all  being  anterior  to  400 
B.  C.  Modern  types  of  Lesbian  coins 
have  the  head  of  Apollo  and  the 
lyre.  Lesbian  coins  seldom  repre¬ 
sented  hero-worship;  but  there  is  an 
ancient  copper  coin  of  their  coinage 
at  Mytilene  inscribed  to  “The  Di¬ 
vine  Theophanes.”  Through  him 
the  liberties  of  the  Mytilenaeans- 
were  restored. —  Travels  and  Dis¬ 
coveries  in  the  Levant,  by  C.  T. 
Newton  (1865),  vol.  i.  p.  68;  Coins 
of  the  Ancients ,  Head,  I.  A.,  x.  p.  5. 


OF  TYANA . 


103 


by  crucifixion.  Jerusalem  promised  no  peace  for  Jew 
or  Roman.1 

Claudius  was  still  reigning.  At  the  close  of  the 
year  A.  D.  50,  Ostorius,  a  Roman  general,  was  sent  to 
displace  Plautius  in  the  half-conquered  island  of  Britain, 
and  in  the  latter  part  of  A.  D.  51  Ostorius  defeated 
Caractacus,  king  of  the  Silures,  and  sent  him  prisoner 
to  Rome.  About  this  time,  A.  D.  52  and  53,  Curtius 
Severus,  prefect  of  Syria,  marched  against  the  Clitae 
who  had  become  troublesome  to  the  province  of  Cilicia 
under  one  Troxobar.  They  made  inroads  upon  the 
farmers  and  townsfolk,  merchants  and  shipping.  In  the 
mean  time  Claudius  Felix  had  been  appointed  procu¬ 
rator  at  Jerusalem,  which  added  new  complications  ;  and 
disorders  and  disturbances  continued  to  multiply.  The 
two  parties  had  organized  or  employed  gangs  of  assas¬ 
sins  to  operate  against  one  another.  The  priests  were 
engaged  in  the  tumults,  riot  prevailed  everywhere, 
which  Felix  was  impotent  to  quell.  In  this  year  Clau¬ 
dius  improvised  a  great  naval  battle  upon  Lake  Fucinus, 
an  artificial  aqueduct  commenced  in  A.  D.  38  and  just 
finished.  This  was  gotten  up  in  imitation  of  the  great 
exhibition  of  Augustus  on  the  basin  of  the  Tiber,  ex¬ 
cept  that  it  was  on  a  much  grander  scale.2 

The  galleys  were  equipped  with  nineteen  thousand 
men ;  the  entire  lake  was  occupied  by  marines  and 
decked  vessels ;  an  immense  multitude  covering  the 
adjacent  hills  to  their  very  summits  were  present  to 
witness  the  fight  and  to  pay  their  respects  to  the 

1  Cf.  An  Account  of  the  Life  of  2  Cf.  Abridgment  of  Roman  His- 
Apollonius,  by  M.  Lenain  de  Tille-  tory  (Eutropius),  b.  7,  c.  xiii.;  Sue- 
mont,  p.  15.  tonius,  Aug.,  xliii. 


104 


APOLLONIUS 


emperor,  who,  with  Agrippina  seated  near  him, 
presided.1 

The  battle  was  fought  by  condemned  criminals,  and 
much  blood  was  shed.  Apollonius  thanked  the  gods 
that  the  distance  intervening  between  him  and  this 
brutal  exhibition  was  too  great  to  make  him  a  corn- 
pulsatory  witness  of  it.  There  are  abundant  coins  and 
medals  commemorating  this  historical  event.2 

While  in  Lesbos,  Apollonius  visited  the  temple  of 
Orpheus  at  Mytilene,  whom  he  held  in  high  esteem  for 
his  many  virtues.  He  is  said  to  have  lulled  to  sleep 
the  dragon  that  guarded  the  golden  fleece,  and  such 
was  his  power  upon  a  lyre,  presented  him  by  Apollo, 
that  he  could  enchant  wild  beasts,  serpents,  birds,  and 
trees.  He  perished  at  the  hands  of  the  Thracian 
women  who,  in  a  sexual  frenzy,  stripped  the  flesh  from 
his  bones  because  he  treated  their  charms  with  con¬ 
tempt.  In  this  temple  Apollonius  sacrificed  to  the 
memory  of  Pittacus,  a  philosopher,  one  of  the  seven 
wise  men  of  Greece,  and  a  native  of  Mytilene.  He 
slew  Phrynon,  the  leader  of  the  Athenians,  in  single 
combat,  for  which  he  was  venerated  by  his  country. 
He  was  also  celebrated  as  a  poet,  and  many  of  his 
elegiacs  Apollonius  declares  were  full  of  tenderness  ; 
expressive  of  great  sorrow.  Pittacus  ruled  ten  years 
in  Lesbos  and  resigned  his  charge.  His  sepulture  was 
at  Mytilene.3 

1  Cf.  Histoire  des  Emperenrs  et  des  lian,  Macedonian,  etc. ,  Coins,  by  R.  S. 

autres  Princes  qui  ont  regne  durant  Poole  (London),  7  vols.;  vol.  i.  p.  4. 
les  six  premiers  siecles  de  Ve'glise,  par  3  There  is  a  bronze  medallion  ex- 
Sebastien  Lenain  de  Tillemont,  6  tant,  bearing  the  effigy  of  Pittacus, 
vols.  (1700).  and  on  the  reverse  the  portrait  of 

2  Catalogue  of  Greek,  Italian,  Sici-  the  poet  Alcreus,  who  was  exiled. 


OF  TYANA. 


105 


At  Mytilene  Apollonius  was  the  guest  of  Polemon, 
the  preceptor  of  Tiberius,  and  son  of  Lesbonax,  the 
stoic.  And  he  also  attended  the  theater  where  Polemon 
was  honored  with  a  marble  chair  in  the  front  among  the 
civil  and  religious  dignitaries  of  the  city  ;  the  seat  rested 
upon  lions’  legs,  with  serpents  entwined,  and  on  which 
was  the  inscription  IIOTAM&NOS  TO  AESB^NAKTOS 
IIPOEAPIA.  “The  place  of  honor  of  Polemon,  son  of 
Lesbonax.”  He  was  furnished  with  a  passport  by 
Tiberius  in  this  form,  “  If  any  one  dare  to  injure  Pole¬ 
mon,  the  son  of  Lesbonax,  let  him  consider  whether  he 
will  be  strong  enough  to  wage  war  with  Tiberius.” 
Apollonius  spent  one  season  at  Mytilene  in  Lesbos, 
and  in  the  autumn  directed,  according  to  a  long-cher¬ 
ished  desire,  his  steps  toward  Athens,  the  Paris  of 
antiquity. 

They  took  ship  at  Mytilene  and  sailed  from  the  south 
port,  but  were  detained  nearly  two  days  in  consequence 
of  a  dispute  between  the  master  of  the  vessel  and  the 
father  of  an  Armenian  girl.  '  The  difficulty  arose  from 
some  misunderstanding  about  the  price  the  captain 
was  to  pay  the  father  for  the  services  of  the  girl  as 
his  companion  during  the  voyage.  Their  difficulties 
were  finally  settled  to  the  satisfaction  of  all  the  parties, 
except  those  who  had  taken  passage  in  the  ship.  The 
girl  was  particularly  pleased ;  she  appeared  to  have 
escaped  a  great  tyranny.  Apollonius  deprecated  this 
monstrous  evil  which  prevails  in  all  the  maritime  ports 
of  Greece  and  Ionia.1  From  Mytilene  they  sailed 
directly  for  Samos,  passing  to  the  left  of  Chios,  which 

l  Travels  of  Antenor,  vol.  ii.  p.  216;  Lenain  de  Tillemont ,  vol.  iv. 
p.  86;  Marriage  Rites ,  etc.,  by  Lady  Hamilton,  p.  73  (1822). 

14 


io  6 


APOLLONIUS 


was  kept  in  sight  the  greater  portion  of  the  second  day 
out,  and  on  the  third  day  they  arrived  at  the  harbor 
of  Samos.  “  Samos/’  said  Apollonius  to  his  disciples, 
“  was  one  of  the  mightiest  states  of  Greece  in  the  days 
of  Polycrates  (b.  c.  552)  and  a  rival  of  Athens  in  the 
days  of  Pericles  ”  (b.  C.  460).  It  was  to  Apollonius 
sacred  ground,  for  here  Pythagoras,  Anacreon,  and 
Mandrocles  (who  built  the  bridge  over  the  Bosphorus) 
were  born,  and  from  which  they  were  driven  by  impe¬ 
rial  oppression.  While  remaining  in  port,  Apollonius 
embraced  the  opportunity  of  visiting  the  great  temple 
and  the  celebrated  statue  of  Juno  by  Smilis,  the  Greek 
sculptor,1  at  Heraeum,  about  twenty  stadia  distant,  and 
here,  as  in  most  other  Greek  cities,  the  route  was  over 
a  magnificently  paved  road,  called  the  Sacred  Way , 
which  was  crowded  with  a  procession  of  pomp  and 
wealth,  and  bordered  by  the  tombs  of  the  most  cele¬ 
brated  of  Samos.  The  temple  of  Hera  is  one  of  the 
richest  and  most  splendid  of  Greece,  and  was  of  great 
antiquity.  The  goddess  stood  erect,  was  veiled,  and 
clad  in  a  long  chiton.2 

There  had  been  a  long,  and  it  was  still  an  unsettled, 
dispute,  whether  the  cult  of  Hera  was  older  at  Samos 
or  Argos.  Juno  had  also  a  temple  at  Rome,  where  she 
was  styled  Moneta,  and  she  is  represented  upon  medals 
with  the  instruments  of  coinage,  the  hammer,  the  anvil, 
the  pincers,  and  the  die,  with  the  Latin  word  Moneta. 
Buneus,  son  of  Mercury,  is'  said  to  have  erected  a  tem¬ 
ple  to  her  at  Corinth.  Pliny  says,  she  had  a  temple 
adorned  with  paintings  under  the  name  of  Juno  Ardia. 

1  There  was  another  of  this  goddess,  by  the  same  artist,  at  Argos. 

2  See  Strabo  and  Titus  Livius  and  Herodotus. 


OF  TV  AN  A. 


107 


Upon  a  medal  of  Salonius,  she  is  represented  as  a  stag. 
She  was  worshiped  in  Syria,  Lybia,  and  Egypt  (As- 
tarte  and  Isis).1 

Apollonius  thinks  that  there  is  but  little  value  to  be 
attached  to  these  vain  phantoms,  and  that  the  history 
of  Samos  is  but  a  tissue  of  myths  and  fables  little  to  be 
relied  upon.2 

The  coins  of  Samos,  which  are  numerous,  incline 
more  to  a  religious  enthusiasm  than  to  art  or  history. 
Hera,  or  Juno,  is  fully  represented  on  the  beautiful 
Samian  coins  of  almost  every  period.3 


1  The  worship  of  Diana  (also 
Hera  and  Juno  in  Gaul)  under  the 
name  of  Lady  Abunde,  with  feasts, 
races,  and  dancing,  was  extant  to 
the  sixth  century. —  See  Dulaure, 
Histoire  de  Paris ,  first  ed.  vol.  v. 
p.  259;  also,  Glossar :  verbis  Di¬ 
ana  et  Holda. 

2  The  Mythology  and  Fables  of  the 
Ancients ,  etc.,  by  the  Abbe  Banier, 
vol.  ii.  p.  243. 

3  The  study  of  Samian  coins  is, 
from  their  great  variety,  interesting 
and  profitable  from  the  fact  that 
they  pick  up  segments  of  its  lost 
history. —  See  Samos  and  Samian 
Coins,  by  P.  Gardner,  M.  A.  (Mac¬ 
millan  &  Co.,  1882). 

There  seems,  from  these  coins, 
no  break  in  the  veneration  of  the 
Samians  for  their  pagan  deities  up 
to  and  into  the  fifth  century. 

The  form  in  which  Hera  appears 
on  Samian  coins  of  imperial  times 
bears  a  close  resemblance  to  the 
well-known  shape  of  the  Ephesian 
Artemis  at  Ephesus  and  Perga, 


with  the  sun  and  moon  on  either 
side  of  her  head.  The  local  goddess 
was  Artemis,  and,  like  Aphrodite, 
Persephone,  and  Mylitta,  she  was 
the  patroness  of  sexual  desire. — 
Gardner’s  Samos  and  Samian  Coins 
(1882).  Here  was  also  a  sanctuary 
to  Poseidon.  In  fact,  no  Roman 
sea-port  was  complete  without  a 
temple  dedicated  to  this  god  of  ocean 
and  navigation.  There  were  other 
cults  in  Samos ;  it  was  a  religious 
hot-bed.  They  had  many  shrines, 
as  that  of  Aphrodite,  established 
by  Athenian  courtesans  who  accom¬ 
panied  the  army  of  Pericles  when 
he  besieged  Samos ;  also  the  shrines 
of  Demeter,  Athene,  and  of  Hermes. 

The  prevailing  type  of  all  the 
Samian  coins  was  the  lion  or  bull’s 
head  or  scalp,  sometimes  head  and 
shoulders  and  fore  feet ;  this  was 
also  true  of  the  Lesbian  coins,  and 
there  appears  to  have  been  a  com¬ 
pact  between  them  of  which  history 
is  silent ;  but  they  were  known 
by  the  letters  A.  E.  (Lesbos),  the 


io8 


APOLLONIUS 


The  voyage  from  Samos  to  Athens  was  delightful 
for  that  time  of  the  year,  it  being  autumn,  at  which 
season  the  Grecian  seas  are  specially  noted  for  their 
tempestuousness.  A  genial  and  pacific  atmosphere  and 
an  unruffled  sea  afforded  Apollonius  an  opportunity  of 
introspecting  and  enjoying  the  beautiful  scenery  of  the 
islands  of  the  Eubean  archipelago ;  and  on  the  even¬ 
ing  of  the  first  day  the  calmness  of  the  water,  the 
cloudless  sky,  and  the  setting  sun,  as  it  now  tinged 
the  receding  heights  of  Lemnos,  while  the  shades  of 
evening  were  gathering  around  the  summits  of  Chios, 
contributed  to  produce  a  scene  of  dazzling  beauty : 
never  to  be  effaced  from  memory.  Apollonius  re¬ 
mained  out  until  late  at  night,  and  when  he  came  on 
deck  the  next  morning,  far  away  on  their  left  they 
could  just  discern  the  island  of  Naxos,  rendered  famous 
by  Ariadne ;  and  during  the  day,  the  wind  continuing 
light  but  favorable,  they  sailed  between  the  islands 
Paros  and  Delos,  the  green  fields  and  rocky  summits 
of  both  being  in  full  view.  The  latter  island,  said 
Apollonius,  is  the  most  memorable  of  all  the  archi¬ 
pelago.  It  was  the  birthplace  of  Apollo  and  Diana 
and  Homer.1  It  has  temples  to  Apollo,  Diana,  Latona, 
Serapis,  Isis,  and  Anubis,2  and  here  was  kept  the  great 
statue  of  Venus  by  Daedalus,  presented  by  him  to 


Samian  by  £.  A.  or  £  A  M  I  (Sa¬ 
mos).  Nearly  all  the  imperial  coins 
from  Augustus,  B.  c.  30,  to  Galli- 
enus,  A.  d.  270,  are  interesting  as 
representing  local  myths, — >all  of 
which  have  the  head  of  Hera,  ex¬ 
cept  one  of  Domitian  having  two 
peacocks;  one  of  Valerian  Nemesis 


veiled  fore-part  of  a  galley,  Domi¬ 
tian. 

1  It  is  known  that  Homer  offi¬ 
ciated  as  a  priest  of  Apollo  at 
Delos. — Hymns  of  Homer,  p.  18. 

2  Plutarch  says  they  are  the 
most  stately  structures  in  the  uni¬ 
verse  (vol.  iii.  p.  98). 


OF  TYANA. 


109 


Ariadne,  and  by  her  to  Theseus,  and  by  Theseus  to 
Delos.  So  very  sacred  did  the  ancients  regard  the 
island  of  Delos  that  no  hostilities  were  practiced  there. 
Even  by  nations  that  were  at  war  with  one  another, 
all  contentions  ceased  when  they  entered  the  waters 
of  Delos.  It  was  called  “Daughter  of  the  Ocean.”1 
During  the  day  they  sighted  Syros,  Cythnus,  Gyarus, 
and  Ceos,  Apollonius  in  the  mean  time  discoursing 
upon  their  history,  productions,  and  philosophy.  He 
said  the  first  colonies  sent  out  by  Greece  settled  at 
Lesbos  and  founded  six  cities ;  after  which,  in  their 
turn,  twelve  colonies  were  founded  upon  the  islands 
Samos,2  Chios,  Miletus,  Myus,  Priene,  and  at  Ephesus, 
Colophon,  Lebedus  Teos ;  other  bands  founded  cities 
in  Crete  and  Rhodes.  The  Laconians  founded  Cnidus. 
At  first  the  inhabitants  of  these  islands  were  con¬ 
stantly  engaged  in  piracy.  But  when  Minos,  king  of 
Crete,  established  a  fleet,  he  drove  the  pirates  out  and 
settled  colonists  there,  and  the  Greeks  who  at  first  lived 
inland  for  greater  safety  have  now  removed  their 
towns  near  the  sea-shore  for  the  sake  of  commerce. 
Damis  became  restless  under  these  conversations,  and 
when  he  could  endure  it  no  longer  charged  Apollonius 
with  wasting  time  on  subjects  old  and  obsolete,  when 
there  were  others  of  much  greater  moment  within 
reach.  “And  what  subject,”  said  Apollonius,  “  do  you 
consider  preferable  to  the  history  and  colonization  of 
these  islands  by  the  Greeks  ?  ”  “You  tell  us,”  rejoined 

1  Livy  says  the  war-ships  of  Per-  a  war  of  extermination  was  being 
seus  of  Macedon  and  Eumenes  of  carried  on  between  them  without. 
Pergamus  rode  peaceably  side  by  2  Gardner’s  Samos  and  Samian 
side  in  the  harbor  of  Delos,  while  Coins . 


1 10 


APOLLONIUS 


Damis,  “  that  you  have  conversed  with  Achilles,  and 
have  found  out  from  him  many  things  of  which  we 
are  ignorant.  Why  not  inform  us  of  them,  and  give 
us  the  express  form  and  countenance  of  the  man 
instead  of  these  conversations  about  passing  islands 
and  ship-building?”  “You  shall  hear  it  all,”  said 
Apollonius.  “  I  obtained  the  honor  of  conversing  with 
Achilles,  not,  after  the  manner  of  Ulysses,  by  digging 
a  trench,  nor  by  cooking  his  manes  by  the  blood  of 
lambs ;  but  I  accomplished  it  with  prayers  addressed 
to  that  god,  and  who  was  pleased  to  hear  and  answer 
them.  Achilles  appeared  to  me  in  the  form  of  a  youth 
about  five  cubits  high,  dressed  in  a  Thessalian  mantle. 
His  countenance  was  not  expressive  of  that  pride  and 
haughtiness  with  which  the  Greeks  have  charged  him.” 
He  then  recounted  the  conversation :  How  that  Polyxena 
perished  by  her  own  hand,  and  was  not  slain  by  the 
Greeks.  How  that  Helen  was  never  at  Troy ;  that 
after  her  second  marriage  she  was  sent  to  Rhodes, 
where  she  was  strangled  in  a  bath ;  and  that  the 
Rhodians  erected  a  temple  to  her  under  the  title  of 
Helen  Entitris.  Also  the  reason  why  Homer  never 
mentioned  Palamedes,  and  the  information  concerning 
his  tomb.  This  was  all  that  passed  on  shipboard. 

The  sea  continuing  tranquil  and  the  weather  mild, 
Apollonius  remained  on  deck  all  night,  that  he  might 
hail  the  point  Sunium,  sacred  to  Minerva  and  Neptune, 
an  old  and  revered  custom  among  the  Greeks.  They 
passed  the  point  just  as  the  sun  rose  bright  and  clear 
upon  the  blue  waters  of  the  Saronic  Gulf,  and  the  temple 
of  Sunium1  gleamed  resplendently  in  his  rays. 

1  Minerva  and  Neptune,  constructed  of  white  Parian  marble. 


OF  TYANA. 


I 1 1 


On  the  fifth  day  out  they  entered  the  harbor  of 
Piraeeus,  the  sea-port  of  Athens,  founded  by  Pericles,  a 
city  into  which  poured  the  riches  of  the  world,1  and 
which  is  surrounded  by  a  wall  extending  to  Athens, 
forty  stadia  long,  sixty  feet  high,  and  so  thick  that  two 
chariots  may  drive  abreast  on  the  top  of  it.  Apollonius 
says  the  harbor  and  basin  were  lined  with  ships,  and 
the  docks  were  covered  with  warehouses  and  bazaars. 
The  town  contained  many  temples  of  native  and  alien 
gods.  Here  Zeus  was  worshiped  as  the  saviour  of 
mankind.  He  did  not  tarry  at  Piraeeus,  but  proceeded 
at  once  to  the  most  prosperous  city  of  Greece,  and  the 
noblest  of  the  world,2  but  whose  glory  was  now  being 
overshadowed  by  the  imperial  despotism  of  Rome.  The 
noteworthy  objects  along  the  road  were  the  tombs,  the 
most  illustrious  of  which,  observed  by  Damis,  were  those 


1  Pirseeus  was  the  harbor  and 
place  of  commercial  business  of 
Athens  (four  and  one -half  miles  dis¬ 
tant),  and  it  was  thronged  with  the 
various  appliances  and  elements  of 
commerce.  All  the  finest  products 
of  Sicily,  of  Italy,  the  Pontus,  Pelo¬ 
ponnesus,  and  the  far  East,  “Ath¬ 
ens,  by  her  empire  of  the  sea,  is  able 
to  collect  into  one  spot,”  says  Xen¬ 
ophon.  The  commerce  of  the  world 
and  the  purity  of  Athenian  coin 
procured  it  a  universal  circulation. 
It  is  uncertain  where  the  apyopo- 
xouetov  or  mint  was  situated,  but  in 
a  state  so  celebrated  as  Athens  for 
silver  coin  it  must  have  been  a 
building  of  importance.  Banking 
was  a  flourishing  trade  at  Athens. 
Bankers  received  deposits  at  call, 


or  upon  interest,  the  usual  rate 
being  one  per  cent,  per  menseur. 
The  temples  also,  whose  sacred 
character  made  them  places  of  great 
security,  took  people’s  spare  money 
and  valuables  in  safe  keeping. 

The  shrine  of  Apollo  at  Delphos 
was  a  famous  “bank  of  deposit,” 
and  it  was  from  these  sources  that 
Apollonius’s  immediate  wants  were 
supplied,  by  loans  made  to  him,  he 
having  a  large  amount  to  his  credit 
in  some  temple,  probably  ^Escula- 
pius,  at  Tarsus. 

2  Cf.  Encyclopedia  Brit.  ;  The 
Topography  of  Athens ,  with  some 
Remarks  on  its  Antiquities ,  by 
William  Martin  Leake,  2  vols. 
(London,  1841),  vol.  i.  p.  365; 
Pausanias,  Att.  ii.  2. 


1 12 


APOLLONIUS 


of  Menander  and  Euripides  ;  the  latter  was  empty  ;  he 
was  buried  in  Macedonia.  Near  the  gate  by  which 
they  entered  Athens,  Apollonius  observed  a  statue  of 
a  soldier,  standing  by  a  horse.  “Who  it  is,  I  know 
not !  ”  said  he,  “  but  both  horse  and  soldier  are  the  work 
of  Praxiteles.”1  Just  inside  the  walls  (they  entered 
Athens  by  the  road  that  passes  straight  through  the 
city  and  leads  to  the  Academy,  about  eighty  stadia 
beyond  the  Dipylum  Gate,  which  was  shaded  with 
cypresses),  they  first  came  upon  the  temple  of  Ceres, 
containing  a  statue  of  Ceres,  Proserpine,  and  Iacchus. 
Here  was  the  tomb  of  Pericles ;  there  the  resting-place 
of  Thrasybulus,  and  the  altars  of  the  Muses  and  of  Mer¬ 
cury,  of  Hercules,  and  of  Minerva.2  And  this,  apostro¬ 
phized  Apollonius,  is  Athens,  which  for  ages  has 
furnished  light  and  science  to  the  world,  where  genius, 
wisdom,  and  taste  have  reached  their  highest  perfection, 
and  from  which  Rome,  with  all  her  boastful  originality, 
borrowed  all  she  now  has.  Here  Zeno  retired  from  his 
native  Cyprus,  and  was  so  impressed  with  the  teachings 
of  Socrates  as  to  become  a  pupil  of  Stilpo,  a  native  of 
Megara,  the  successor  of  Diogenes  and  Plato.  Zeno’s 
stainless  reputation  won  favor  for  his  philosophy,  and 
he  taught  stoicism  in  Athens  fifty-eight  years.  The 
confidence  reposed  in  him  as  a  teacher  by  the  Athen¬ 
ians,  and  he  a  foreigner,3  was  a  glorious  testimony  to 
the  character  of  Zeno.  And  here  also  lived  and  reigned 
Pericles,  the  stoic,  the  greatest  of  all  statesmen,  the 

1  These  figures  were  standing  on  2  Topography  of  Athens  (Leake), 
a  tomb ;  it  is  uncertain  whose. —  vol.  i.  pp.  62-108. 

Pausanias.  3  Life  of  Zeno ,  Ritter,  Zeno  Phi- 

Gate  Hippades,  cIrcn:a§ov.  losophus. 


OF  TYANA. 


1 13 

most  eloquent  of  all  orators,  the  most  dignified  of  all 
citizens,  and  the  most  beloved  of  all  men.  The  day  of 
their  arrival  was  the  first  day,  orfopiids,  or  day  of  the 
assembly  or  the  preparation  for  celebrating  the  Eleusin- 
ian  mysteries.  This  great  gathering  always  took  place 
at  Athens  during  the  month  BoTjSpoputov  (September 
and  October),  and  lasted  nine  days,  and  two  women 
born  of  unlawful  wedlock  presided  each  day ;  on  the 
third  day  was  the  sacrifice  of  flour  and  cakes ;  on  the 
fourth  day  the  procession  proceeded  to  Eleusis,  about 
one  hundred  stadia  distant,  along  the  Sacred  Way,  the 
two  presiding  women  carrying  the  sacred  laws  on  their 
heads ;  during  the  procession  no  person  was  permitted  to 
ride.  On  the  fifth  day  they  walked  the  streets  the 
night  long,  in  imitation  of  the  search  which  Ceres  made 
for  her  daughter;  the  rites  of  the  sixth  day,  however, 
were  in  honor  of  Ceres  and  Proserpine,  embodying  the 
great  dogma  of  death  and  resurrection.  A  great  portion 
of  these  festivities  were  gross,  vulgar,  and  scandalous  in 
the  extreme.  The  phallus,  corresponding  with  the 
Hindoo  yoni  and  lingam ,  was  carried  in  the  proces¬ 
sion,  and  was  the  subject  of  vulgar  jests.  All  this 
ended  in  the  sacrament  of  bread  and  wine.1  The  city 
was  crowded  with  people  from  all  parts  of  Greece,  who 
had  come  together  more  for  pleasure  than  piety,  and 
yet  there  was  more  piety  than  morality  —  the  show¬ 
bills  upon  the  walls  and  public  places  proclaimed  it 

1  Essai  surles  my s teres  a  Eleusis ,  N.  Y.,  1875) ;  see  also  Encyclopaedia 
Ouwaroff (Paris,  1816);  Topography  Britannica ,  Eleusinia;  Symbolic 
of  A  thens  (  Leake),  vol.  i.  pp.  3-483 ;  Language  of  A  ncientA  rtand  Mythol- 
The  Eleusiman  and  Bacchic  Mys-  ogy,  etc.,  by  R.  Payne  Knight,  Esq., 
teries ,  A  Dissertation ,  by  Thomas  pp.  5,  15,  etc.;  Bryant’s  Antient My- 
Taylor,  p.  160,  etc.  (J.  W.  Bouton,  thology ,  vol.  i.  p.  229. 

15 


APOLLONIUS 


1 14 

rather  the  saloon  of  Venus  than  the  temple  of  Vesta; 
a  court  more  meet  for  the  voluptuary  than  the  philoso¬ 
pher.1  At  this  period  Athens  was  also  ripe  in  all  polit¬ 
ical  intrigues.  She  had  her  party  bosses,  her  Tweeds, 
her  Kellys  ;  her  financial  tyrants,  her  Jay  Goulds  and 
her  Vanderbilts.  Her  offices  were  alternately  filled 
with  an  army  of  turbulent  vultures.  Eighteen  hun¬ 
dred  years  ago  that  infamous  maxim  which  has  been 
the  curse  of  American  politics,  “To  the  victors  belong 
the  spoils,”  was  enforced  to  the  bitter  end. 

Apollonius  was  recognized  and  acknowledged  by 
the  people  as  he  approached  and  passed  through  the 
crowd,  amid  greetings  and  acclamations  of  joy,  regard¬ 
less  of  the  sacredness  of  the  occasion.  But  he  charged 
them  to  attend  to  the  sacred  rites,  and  that  he  would 
speak  his  mind  to  them  at  a  more  convenient  time,  as 
he  wished  to  be  initiated  himself  at  the  Epidaurian,  or 
eighth-day  festival.2 * 4  But  when  the  intention  of  Apol¬ 
lonius  of  presenting  himself  for  initiation  became 


1  Travels  of  Antenor ,  translated 
by  E.  F.  Lantier,  vol.  iii.  p.  334. 

2  Veil  of  Isis  (Reade);  Topography 
of  Athens  (Leake),  vol.  i.  pp.  23,  24. 

The  eighth  day  of  the  mysteries 
was  called  the  day  of  the  Epidaur- 
ians,  because  .dEsculap'/ius,  coming 
from  Epidaurus  to  Athens,  and  de¬ 
siring  to  be  initiated,  the  lesser 
mysteries  were  repeated;  hence  it 
became  necessary  to  celebrate  them 
a  second  time  on  that  day,  and  to 
initiate  those  who  had  not  enjoyed 
that  privilege. —  See  The  Mythology 
and  Fables  of  the  A  ncients ,  Explained 
from  History ,  by  the  Abbe  Banier, 

4  vols.  (London,  1740),  art.  Eleusis; 


Initiation  of  Apuleus  in  the  Golden 
Ass,  c.  xi.  ;  cf.  Isis  Unveiled :  A 
Master  Key  to  the  Mysteries  of  An¬ 
cient  and  Modern  Science  and  The - 
ology,  by  H.  P.  Blavatsky  (Bouton, 
New  York,  1877),  vol.  ii.  p.  44; 
Eleusinian  and  Bacchic  Mysteries  : 
A  Dissertation,  by  Thomas  Taylor, 
edited  by  Alex.  Wilder,  M.  A. 
(1875);  see  also  Herodotus,  ii.  81  ; 
On  Egyptian  and  Pythagorean 
Mysteries ;  Ancient  Symbol  Wor¬ 
ship,  p .  12;  Progress  of  Religious 
Ideas,  etc.,  by  Lydia  M.  Child,  vol. 
ii.  p.  308 ;  A  Discourse  on  the  Wor¬ 
ship  of  the  Priapus,  by  Richard 
Payne  Knight  (London,  1865). 


OF  TYANA. 


1 15 


known  to  the  hierophant,  the  revealer  of  holy  things, 
who  had  charge  of  the  ceremonies,  he  would  not  ad¬ 
mit  him,  saying,  that  he  was  not  permitted  by  the  laws 
to  initiate  an  enchanter,  or  reveal  the  Eleusinian  mys¬ 
teries  to  a  man  not  pure  in  things  touching  religion.1 
Apollonius  was  unmoved  by  his  refusal,  and  replied 
that  the  hierophant  had,  in  his  ignorance,  overlooked 
the  only  real  objection  to  his  initiation  ;  it  being  that 
“  I  know  more  of  the  ceremonies  of  initiation  than  you 
do.”  When  the  hierophant  became  sensible  that  he 
had  made  a  mistake,  he  prayed  Apollonius  to  accept 
the  rites  at  his  hands  ;  to  which  he  replied  that  he  would 
wait  until  the  ceremony  should  have  another  premier. 

During  his  residence  in  Athens,  Apollonius  became 
familiar  with  the  grace  and  grandeur  of  the  Areopagus 
(’Apfjl'ov  7r dyov),  or  the  hill  of  Mars  (arsenal-fortress),2 
and  with  the  Acropolis  or  Cecropian  Hill,  just  to  the 
east  of  it,  with  its  Dionysiac  theater,  then  undergoing 
repairs.3  No  other  inclosure  on  earth  embraced  so 
much  beauty  within  its  walls.4  Its  three  great  struct¬ 
ures  were  the  Propylsea,5  the  Erechtheum,  and  the 


1  Nero,  the  emperor,  was  refused 
initiation  on  account  of  his  mother’s 
murder,  and,  notwithstanding  his 
threats,  they  persisted  in  their  re¬ 
fusal  ;  and  Constantine  could  find 
no  pagan  priest  who  would  consent 
to  absolve  him  from  his  murders. 
He  became  a  Christian,  and  pro¬ 
cured  absolution. —  Philosophy  of 
History ;  or,  A  Philosophical  and 
Historical  Dissertation,  etc.  etc., 
by  Voltaire  (London,  1829),  p. 
219. 

2  Lar cher’s  Notes  on  Herodotus, 

vol.'ii.  p.  360. 


3  This  description  is  wonderfully 
confirmed  on  an  ancient  coin  of 
Athens  (British  Museum).  A  curi¬ 
ous  medal  represents  the  great 
Athenian  theater  viewed  from  the 
plain  below.  Its  proscenium  and 
carved  fronts,  and  its  gradation  of 
seats,  are  distinctly  seen.  Above 
the  theater  rises  the  wall  of  the 
Acropolis,  over  the  center  of  which 
is  seen  the  Parthenon,  and  to  the 
left  the  Propylsea. 

4  Pausanias,  vol.  i.  p.  86. 

5  Topography  of  Athens  (Leake), 
vol.  i.  pp.  5-86. 


APOLLONIUS 


1 1 6 


Parthenon,  temple  of  Minerva,  or  Virgin-house  (22 7 
feet  long,  101  wide,,  with  46  columns  6  feet  in  diameter 
each  at  the  base),  containing  a  colossal  figure  of  the 
invincible  virgin,  by  Phidias.  The  ancient  coins  of 
Athens  have  furnished  us  with  many  interesting  facts 
concerning  this  gigantic  statue.1  There  were  three 
statues  of  Minerva  in  the  Acropolis.  There  was  a  small 
circular  temple,  in  front  of  the  Parthenon,2  dedicated  to 
Augustus,  erected  soon  after  he  attained  to  the  Eleu- 
sinian  mysteries ;  also  in  front  of  the  Parthenon  stood 
Apollo  Parnopius,  by  Phidias ;  also  the  statue  of  Peri¬ 
cles.3  The  Acropolis  contained  statues  of  Diana,  Epi- 
charmus,  CEnobius,  Theseus,  Hercules,  Minerva,  Jupiter, 
and  Neptune.  There  was  a  little  temple  on  Acropolis  Hill, 
dedicated  to  Niki-Apteros,4  the  decorations  of  which 
were  attributed  to  Scopas  and  his  school ;  it  contained 
a  statue  of  Victory  without  wings.  Apollonius  saw 
this  ;  it  had  disappeared  in  the  time  of  Pausanias,  a 
few  years  later.5  There  was  a  view  of  the  sea  from 
the  summit  of  this  temple,  and  it  was  from  here  that 
yEgeus  threw  himself,  and  perished.6  Apollonius  de¬ 
scribed  the  Acropolis  in  its  pride  and  glory  as  one 
grand  offering  to  the  gods,  surpassing  in  excellence, 
richness,  and  beauty  all  other  offerings  of  man.7  The 


1  Topography  of  Athens,  with 
some  Remarks  on  its  Antiquity,  by 
William  Martin  Leake,  of  the  Dilet¬ 
tanti  (London),  2  vols.  1841. 

2  Topography  of  Athens,  etc.,  vol. 
i.  p.  356. 

3  Hist,  of  Greek  Sculpture  (Mur¬ 
ray),  p.  241. 

4  N'v.y]  ’AOfjva,  A  Short  History 

of  Art  (De  Forest),  p.  72. 


5  Pausanias ,  vol.  i.  p.  56. 

6  Travels  in  Italy ,  Greece,  and  the 
Ionian  Islands,  by  H.  W.  Williams, 
Esq.,  2  vols.  (Edinburgh,  1820), 
vol.  ii.  p.  295. 

7  The  authentic  history  of  the 
Athenian  Acropolis  reaches  back 
from  the  present  time  to  a  period 
scarcely  less  than  three  thousand  four 
hundred  years  ago.  It  undoubtedly 


OF  TYANA. 


II 7 

Pantheon,  the  temples  of  Diana,  Minerva,  and  Venus, 
the  Dionysiac  theater,  just  without  its  walls,  on  lower 
ground,  and,  if  it  were  less  fresh  and  beautiful,  it  pos¬ 
sessed  more  interest  than  in  the  days  of  Pericles.  Just 
over  upon  the  plains  (to  the  south-east)  towered  the 
majestic  columns  of  the  temple  of  Jupiter  Olympus,1 
described  by  Apollonius  as  one  of  the  most  magnificent 
structures  in  the  world,  convenient  to  which  was  the 
temple  of  Serapis,  near  the  gate  Hadrian.  The  temple 


was  originally  the  city  ('1]  rcoXl?,  the 
city  Acropolis).  No  other  fortress 
has  embraced  so  much  beauty  and 
splendor  within  its  walls,  nor  was  any 
ever  surrounded  by  so  much  magnifi¬ 
cence  without;  none  has  witnessed  a 
series  of  more  startling  and  momen¬ 
tous  changes  in  the  fortunes  of  its 
possessors.  Wave  after  wave  of  war 
and  conquest  have  beaten  against 
it.  The  city  which  lies  at  its  feet 
has  fallen  beneath  the  assaults  of 
the  Persian,  the  Spartan,  the  Mace¬ 
donian,  and  the  Roman.  It  has 
opened  its  gates  to  the  barbaric 
hordes  of  Alaric,  and  the  not  less 
savage  robbers  of  Catalonia.  It 
has  passed  from  the  representatives 
of  the  Crusaders  into  the  hands  of 
the  Ottoman  Sultans,  and  the  shrine 
of  Athena  has  seen  the  offerings 
of  heathenism  give  place  to  the  rit¬ 
ual  of  Greek  and  Latin  Christianity, 
and  these  in  their  turn  succeeded  by 
the  cold  and  lifeless  ceremonials  of 
Islam,  Through  all  these  and  other 
vicissitudes  it  has  passed,  changing 
only  in  the  character  of  its  occu¬ 
pants —  unchanged  in  its  loveliness 
and  splendor.  With  a  few  blem¬ 


ishes  and  losses,  whether  from  the 
decaying  taste  of  later  times,  or  the 
occasional  robberies  of  a  foreign 
conqueror,  unaffected  in  its  general 
aspect,  it  presented  to  the  eyes  of 
the  victorious  Ottoman  the  same 
front  of  unparalleled  beauty  which 
it  had  displayed  in  the  days  of 
Pericles.  The  professors  of  new 
creeds  had  worshiped  within  its 
beautiful  temples ;  but  beneath  the 
deep  blue  of  the  Athenian  sky, 
and  the  dazzling  splendor  of  the 
Athenian  sun,  the  shrine  of  the 
gray-eyed  goddess,  and  the  hall  of 
Erechtheus,  had  lost  but  little  of 
their  early  glory,  long  after  one 
had  become  a  mosque  and  the  other 
a  harem.  To  him  who  looks  upon 
it  now  the  scene  is  changed,  not 
only  in  the  loss  of  its  treasures 
of  decorative  art  (for  of  many  of 
these  it  had  been  robbed  before), 
but  with  its  loveliest  fabrics  shat¬ 
tered,  many  reduced  to  hopeless 
ruin,  and  not  a  few  utterly  oblit¬ 
erated. 

l  Pausanias ,  vol.  i.  p.  18  ;  My¬ 
thology  and  Fables  of  the  Ancients 
(Banier),  vol.  i.  p.  225. 


1 1 8 


APOLLONIUS 


of  Jupiter  Olympus1  was  founded  by  Deucalion,  and 
its  structure  commenced  by  Pisistratus  (b.  C.  530),  under 
whom  some  progress  was  made ;  Phidias  was  em¬ 
ployed  in  adorning  it,  and  the  throne  and  the  statue 
of  the  god  were  his  master-pieces  ;  but  the  broils  that 
followed  upon  the  death  of  Pisistratus  left  the  temple 
unfinished  for  nearly  three  hundred  years;  B.  C.  174 
it  was  still  unfinished,  and  Antiochus  Epiphanes,  king 
of  Syria,  employed  a  Roman  architect,  named  Cossu- 
tius,  to  proceed  with  it  On  the  death  of  Antiochus 
the  work  dragged  along,  some  of  the  columns  were  car¬ 
ried  to  Rome,  and  utilized  in  the  Capitoline.  The 
work  was  not  again  resumed  until  the  time  of  Augus¬ 
tus,  when  the  kings  and  states  in  his  alliance  agreed  to 
finish  it  at  their  joint  expense.  After  the  death  of 
Augustus  work  was  again  suspended  upon  the  nearly 
completed  temple,  and  it  was  this  condition  of  the 
noble  edifice  which  Apollonius  describes  to  us.  It  was 
finally  dedicated  under  Hadrian,  six  hundred  and  fifty 
years  from  its  foundation.2 


1  Topography  of  Athens,  vol.  i. 
p.  129. 

2  Apollonius  has  given  us  some 
invaluable  hints  concerning  Athens, 
and  fortunate  it  is,  indeed,  that  the 
works  of  Pausanias,  who  made  the 
tour  of  Athens  about  the  year  170 
A.  D.,  have  been  preserved  to  us. 
With  the  exception  of  those  two 
travelers,  Athens  is  a  sealed  book 
from  52  B.  C.  to  the  fifth  century, 
A.  D.  Haydn,  in  his  chronology, 
closes  events  with  Athens  B.  c.  4 7, 
and  opens  again  A.  d.  396.  Ency - 
clopcedia  Britannica  says,  there  was 


a  chasm  of  seven  centuries  of  repose 
in  the  history  of  Athens.  When  the 
world  shall  become  just  enough 
to  mete  out  to  the  villains  who  de¬ 
stroyed  these  records  the  anathemas 
they  deserve,  instead  of  extolling 
their  virtues  to  the  skies,  we  may 
then  hope  for  more  fairness  in  mod¬ 
ern  historical  deductions,  and  not 
till  then.  So  long  as  men  persist 
in  declaring  that  the  meager 
amount  of  stoic  virtue  and  stoic 
morality,  which  has  struggled  along 
for  eighteen  hundred  years,  in  spite 
of  Christianity,  is  all  due  to  that 


OF  TYANA . 


119 


His  opportunities  for  observation  were  of  the  highest 
order,  being  in  favor  with  the  people  of  the  city  and 
the  priests  of  the  temples.  His  time  was  passed  in  asso¬ 
ciations  of  the  first  circles.  Athens  at  this  period  was 
the  great  center,  whither  flocked  persons  from  every 
quarter  of  the  known  world  in  pursuit  of  gain,  instruc¬ 
tion,  and  pleasure.  The  philosophic  schools,  however, 
were  now  under  surveillance  and  in  a  forced  decline, 
and  yet  hundreds  of  students  were  attracted  to  the 
lecture-rooms,  some  for  amusement,  others  for  instruc¬ 
tion.  It  was  the  seat  of  the  Muses,  of  wit,  eloquence, 
laws,  and  learning.  But  few,  says  Philostratus,  of  the 
academic  world  of  Athens  were  native-born.  Aliens 
rose  to  posts  of  honor,  like  Sollianus,  the  first  occupant 
of  the  Athenian  chair.  And  it  was  complained  that 
the  schools  and  academy  were  patronized  by  such  a 
multitude  of  foreigners  that  they  had  corrupted  the 
Attic  tongue.1 

Thither  also  resorted  the  Syrian  silk  merchant  of 
Antioch,  the  corn  factor  of  Egypt,  the  Parthian  spice 


faith,  there  is  but  little  hope  of  the 
regeneration  of  mankind.  We  barely 
know  that  the  Isthmian  ( Banier,  iv. 
436),  Pythian  (Ibid.  iv.  432),  and 
Nemean  ( Ibid.  iv.  435)  games  were 
still  celebrated  ;  the  Roman  colony 
still  indulged  in  the  slaughtering  of 
wild  beasts  in  the  theater ;  and  the 
temples  were  generally  opened  and 
patronized  until  the  middle  of  the 
fifth  century,  or  to  the  reign  of 
Theodosius. — The  Topography  of 
Athens ,  with  some  Remarks  on  its 
Antiquity, by  William  Martin  Leake, 
of  the  Dilettanti,  vol.  i.  p.  49. 


l  Philostratus ,  ii.  p.  62. 

Here  too  are  now  preserved  the 
records  of  the  greatest  of  all  modern 
scientific  societies,  “The  London, 
Berlin,  and  Greek  Anthropological 
Society  of  Athens.”  It  was  near 
Athens  where  those  truly  celebrated 
terra-cotta  images  known  as  the  Tan- 
agra  Figurines  were  disentombed. 
A  collection  of  these  beautiful  speci¬ 
mens  is  now  in  the  Boston  Art 
Museum,  the  gift  of  G.  T.  Appleton, 
Esq.  In  the  rage  for  these  match¬ 
less  relics  eight  thousand  tombs 
have  been  rifled. 


120 


APOLLONIUS 


dealer,  the  negro  in  the  train  of  the  Carthaginian  pro- 
consul,  the  Iberian  with  his  consignment  of  silver  and 
of  iron,  and  the  Massilian  Gaul  with  the  wines  of  Nar- 
bonne.  In  the  middle  of  the  great  square  were  con¬ 
gregated  the  slave-dealers,  with  lash  and  rod,  with 
victims  of  every  age  and  sex,  while  in  full  sight  stood 
the  profaned  “Altar  of  Pity.”  One  of  the  favorite  re¬ 
sorts  of  Apollonius  at  Athens  was  the  portico  called 
the  Pcecile  Stoa,  adorned  with  frescoes  by  Polygnotus, 
the  greatest  painter  of  the  Cimonian  period.  It  was 
one  of  the  monuments  of  this  wonderful  city.  He  was 
also  a  daily  visitor  at  the  gymnasia,  of  which  there 
were  three  in  Athens,  the  Cynosarges,  the  Lyceum, 
and  the  Academy.  Another  favorite  resort  was  the 
Agora,1  or  the  markets  or  marts  of  trade.  Here  was 
the  ayop &  jovaixsta,  or  shops  where  goods  were  sold 
peculiarly  for  women  ;  flour  market ;  ready-made  cloth¬ 
ing  ;  butcher’s  meat  and  fish ;  another  devoted  to  oint¬ 
ments,  pottery,  vases,  garlic,  onions,  perfumes,  cheese, 
etc.  The  booksellers’  shops  were  called  (3if3Xio67]%ai  and 
had  their  special  locality,2  There  were  also  galleries  of 
art-sculpture  by  the  great  masters  of  antiquity.3  And 
for  aught  we  know  to  the  contrary  Apollonius  may 
have  looked  with  adfniration  upon  that  matchless  work 
of  art,  the  statue  of  Demeter  (Ceres),  found  at  Athens 

1  Planned  by  the  celebrated  arch-  W.  Williams,  Esq.,  vol.  ii.  p.  287, 

itect  Hippodaurus.  etc. 

2  To  the  present  day  this  is  sub-  3  St.  Paul  at  Athens ,  etc.,  by 

stantially  the  division  of  every  ba-  Charles  Shakespeare  (London, 
zaar  in  any  important  city  of  Greece.  1878);  Archceologia  Grceca ,  or  the 
—  Topography  of  Athens,  vol.  i.  p.  Antiquities  of  Greece ,  by  John 
487.  Cf.  Travels  in  Italy ,  Greece,  Porter,  D.  D.  (1875),  vol.  i.  p. 
and  the  Ionian  Islands ,  etc.,  by  H.  1,  etc. 


OF  TYANA. 


121 


(in  whose  honor  the  sixth  day  of  the  Mysteries  of 
Eleusis  was  devoted),  and  now  in  the  Metropolitan 
Museum  of  Art  in  New  York.1  Here  was  also  the 
statue  of  Athene  Parthenon,  the  virgin  goddess  of 
Athens,  still  glittering  in  ivory  and  gold.  It  was  thirty- 
six  feet  high,  the  work  of  Phidias,  and  perished  at  Con¬ 
stantinople  in  the  sixteenth  century.  We  are  furnished 
impressions  of  it  upon  the  early  coins  of  the  period. 
Here  were  also  the  great  galleries  of  art — for  Nero 
had  not  yet  robbed  Greece  of  her  master-pieces.2 

Such  was  the  condition  of  Athens  when  (A.  D.  59) 
Apollonius  held  forth  from  the  same  porch  in  advo¬ 
cacy  of  the  same  philosophy  that,  five  hundred  years 
before,  had  echoed  to  the  wisdom  of  Socrates,  and 
on  one  occasion  discoursed  from  the  very  words  of 
Socrates,  “  How  many  things  there  are  which  I  do  not 
want.”  3  Damis  says  that  he  delivered  many  discourses 
both  in  the  temples  to  the  priests,  and  in  the  stoa  to  the 
people,  he  having  preserved  only  portions  of  those  on 


1  M.  Colignon  has  published  a 
well -executed  catalogue  of  the 
painted  vases  in  the  Museum  of  the 
Archaeological  Society  of  Athens. 
Books  of  the  kind  are  always  help¬ 
ful  to  science.  In  this  case  the  au¬ 
thor  has  followed  the  really  classic 
models  afforded  by  M.  de  Witte,  in 
his  description  of  the  famous  Du¬ 
rand  collection,  and  by  Otto  Jahn, 
M.  Stephani,  and  M.  Heydemann 
in  their  Catalogues  of  the  Vases  in 
the  Museums  of  Munich,  St.  Peters¬ 
burg,  and  Naples.  The  reading 
of  this  catalogue  makes  one  keenly 
regret  the  too  long  delay  in  the  ap- 

l6 


pearance  of  M.  Albert  Dumont’s 
great  work  on  Les  Ceramiques  de 
la  Grece  PropreP 

2  Philostratus,  Suetonius,  Taci¬ 
tus. 

3  See  following  works,  Biograph¬ 
ical  History  of  Philosophy  (Geo.  H. 
Lewes),  Encyclopedia  Britannica 
(art.  Socrates),  Life  of  Socrates  (Car¬ 
penter),  Life  of  Socrates  (Ritter), 
Worth  of  Socrates  as  a  Philosopher 
(Schleiermacher),  Neue  Apologiedes 
Socrates  (Eberhard),  Socratische 
Denkwiirdigheiten  (Hamann),  for 
comparisons  between  these  two 
philosophers. 


122 


APOLLONIUS 


the  most  important  subjects.1  And  when  he  found  that 
the  people  of  Athens  were  in  all  things  superstitious 
and  much  given  to  religion,  he  made  Sacrifice  the  sub¬ 
ject  of  several  discourses.  Athens  was  not  intolerant, 
she  was  simply  religious ;  not  a  city  of  philosophers 
only,  but  of  priests, —  a  city  of  Eleusinian  mysteries, 
famed  through  all  lands  —  pomp  of  ritual,  of  fragrance, 
of  incense,  sacrifice,  and  magnificent  temples,  of  conse¬ 
crated  statues  of  gods  and  heroes,  —  these  were  hers 
preeminently  above  any  city  on  earth. 

There  was  a  young  man  at  Athens,  a  native  of  Cor- 
cyra,  and  descended  from  Alcinous,  who  entertained 
Ulysses  so  well  of  old.2  This  young  man  insulted 
Apollonius  by  immoderate  bursts  of  laughter  while 
he  was  talking,  whereupon  he  looked  steadfastly  upon 
him  and  said  :  “  It  is  not  you  whom  I  consider  as 
offering  me  this  insult,  but  the  demon*  within  you.” 
The  young  man  then  laughed  and  cried  by  turns 
without  any  apparent  cause ;  he  even  sang  and 
talked  to  himself.  As  soon  as  Apollonius  fixed  his 
eyes  upon  him,  the  demon  began  to  cry  aloud  and 
broke  out  into  angry  and  horrid  expressions  and  swore, 
begged  that  he  might  be  left  alone  and  he  would 
depart  out  of  the  youth  and  never  enter  another. 
Apollonius  commanded  him  to  depart,  whereupon  the 
young  man  was  in  great  agony  and  then  relapsed  into 
a  quiet  state,  as  if  coming  out  of  a  trance.  He  then 

1  From  the  frequent  mention  by  be  regretted  that  he  did  not  embody 
Damis  that  he  only  preserved  a  por-  it  in  his  sketch  of  him. —  See  also 
tion  of  the  lectures  of  Apollonius,  Tillemont’s  Histoire  des  Empereurs , 
we  are  led  to  believe  that  Philostra-  etc.,  vol.  v.  p.  321 ;  cf.  also  with 
tus  had  a  great  volume  of  the  phi-  DA  ussy,  Benvick  and  Newman. 
losophy  of  Apollonius,  and  it  is  to  2  Pausanias,  vol.  i.  p.  317. 


OF  TYANA. 


123 


laid  aside  the  soft  Sybarite  garments,  and  adopted  the 
garb  of  a  philosopher,  and  became  a  disciple  of  Apol¬ 
lonius.  This  was  in  A.  D.  54.1  Claudius,  who  had  been 
poisoned  by  his  second  wife,  Agrippina,  was  succeeded 
by  Nero,2  a  youth  of  seventeen,  a  son  of  Agrippina  by 
her  former  husband,  Domitius.3 

At  Athens,  Apollonius  corrected  many  abuses  of  the 
temples ;  but  the  people  refused  generally  the  advice 
of  philosophers  and  rushed  in  crowds  to  witness  the 
combats  of  gladiators.4  Adulterers,  fornicators,  house- 


1  During  the  same  year  Philo 
Judeas  published  his  two  great 
works  describing  the  sufferings  of 
the  Jews  under  Caligula. 

2  Caji  Suetonii  Tranquilli  Opera 
et  in  ilia  Commentarius ,  etc.  (1590), 
vol.  ii.  p.  141. 

3  Nero  began  his  reign  A.  D.  54, 
and  Seneca,  the  stoic  and  tutor  of 
Nero,  was  elevated  to  minister  of 
state. — Tillemont’s  Histoire des  Em- 
pereurs ,  etc. 

4  And  let  me  charge  the  reader 
to  make  no  mistake  about  the 
moral  and  religious  reformation 
which  was  taking  place  at  this  time 
under  the  direction  of  Apollonius, 
or  soon  after  Paul  wrote  his  epistles 
and  visited  Rome.  This  was  a  pa¬ 
gan  and  not  a  Christian  reforma¬ 
tion  ;  presbyters,  elders,  bishops, 
are  of  pagan  and  not  Christian  ori¬ 
gin,  and  existed  hundreds  of  years 
anterior  to  Christianity. — Prophet  of 
Nazareth ,  p.  498.  In  a  little  book 
entitled  St.  Paul  at  Athens ,  etc., 
being  nine  sermons  preached  in  St. 
Stephen’s  Church, Westbourne  Park, 


by  Charles  Shakespeare,  B.  A.,  As¬ 
sistant  Curate,  with  a  Preface  by 
Rev.  Canon  Farrar,  D.  D.  (London, 
1878),  on  pages  86,  87,  etc.,  we  find 
that  “  there  were  many  martyrs  who 
perished  for  philosophy,  or  rather 
the  virtue  which  it  inspired.  Under 
its  influence  a  humanizing  spirit 
breathed  itself  into  the  foremost 
minds,  and  toward  the  close  of  the 
century  made  itself  felt  in  the  pal¬ 
ace  of  the  Caesars,  such  was  the 
religious  tone  and  bent  of  what  was 
called  philosophy  in  the  first  cent¬ 
ury  and  part  of  the  second  (Chris¬ 
tianity  had  not  in  the  mean  time 
been  heard  of.  Athens  did  not  be¬ 
come  Christian  until  five  hundred 
years  after  Paul’s  preaching,  and 
then  her  people  and  temples  were 
converted  by  armed  forces).”  The 
gladiatorial  games,  the  shambles, 
where  men  were  butchered  to  make 
a  Roman  holiday, were  discontinued ; 
and  it  was  a  philosopher  who  dared, 
when  it  was  proposed  to  introduce 
the  Roman  amphitheater  at  Athens, 
to  say,  “First,  then,  Athenians,  tear 


124 


A  POLL  ONI  US 


breakers,  cut-purses,  men-stealers,  were  bought  at  high 
prices  and  armed  and  forced  to  fight  against  each  other 
for  the  amusement  of  citizens  and  strangers.  This  bar¬ 
barous  custom  was  most  severely  censured  by  Apollo¬ 
nius.  He  refused  to  attend  the  assembly  of  the  poets 
and  philosophers  at  the  Athenaeum  on  the  ground  that 
it  was  polluted,  impure,  and  tainted  with  blood.  In 
one  of  his  epistles  he  expressed  surprise  that  the  god¬ 
dess  Minerva  had  not  abandoned  her  citadel,  such  was 
the  pollution  of  her  temples ;  but  although  eloquence, 
poetry,  art,  and  philosophy  have  declined  from  the 
glorious  perfection  of  the  days  of  Pericles,  yet  Minerva 
and  the  Muses  have  never  deserted  Athens,1  and  it  has 
ever  remained  the  center  of  Hellenic  culture.2 

Apollonius  remained  at  Athens  two  years,  at  the 
expiration  of  which  period  he  accepted  an  embassy  to 
the  Thessalians,  in  obedience  to  a  command  of  Achilles.3 
They  were  at  this  time  assembled  at  Thermopylae4 


down  your  altars  erected  to  Mercy.’’ 
“  And  I  tell  you,  my  brethren,  we 
shall  miss  the  real  lesson  to  be 
learned  from  these  facts  if  we  as¬ 
sume,  as  is  too  often  assumed  in  a 
polemical  interest,  that  such  philos¬ 
ophy  was  a  plagiarism  either  of 
Judaism  or  of  Christianity.” — 
Charles  Shakespeare,  B.  A. 

1  This  was  the  famous  statue  of 
Minerva,  composed  of  ivory  and 
gold,  the  work  of  Phidias,  and  was 
erected  by  Pericles  in  the  Pantheon 
at  Athens,  b.  c.  456.  This  was  the 
statue  in  the  construction  of  which 
Phidias  is  said  to  have  stolen  a  part 
of  the  gold  intended  for  its  con¬ 
struction.  The  charge  Phidias  re¬ 


futed.  The  temple  in  which  it  was 
placed  is  now  called  Santa  Maria 
^Egyptiaca;  there  was  a  little  chapel 
within  it  in  the  form  of  Christ’s 
sepulture.  An  ancient  coin  of 
Athens  (b.  c.  470)  of  the  age  of 
Pericles  is  still  extant,  with  the 
head  of  Minerva  on  one  side  and 
the  habitual  owl  on  the  other. — Cf. 
Topography  of  Athens  (Leake),  vol. 
i.  p.  529. 

2  Cf.  Suetonius  ;  Antiquites  de  la 
Grece  en  general  et  d’’ Athenes  en 
particulier,  par  Lambert  (Bos,  Paris, 
1761),  8  vo. 

3  Apollonius  de  Tyane  (Chassang), 

p.  161. 

4  Larcher’s  Notes,  c.  v.  1 13. 


OF  TYANA. 


1 25 


(Amphictyonic  council  in  the  temple  of  Demeter),1  The 
journey  to  Thermopylae  was  performed  by  Apollonius 
and  his  disciples  on  foot,  through  Bceotia,  Via  Sacra  or 
Cloven  Way.  On  the  evening  of  the  third  day  out  they 
arrived  at  Delphi,  situated  at  the  foot  of  Parnassus,  in 
Phocis.2  Here  was  established  the  most  celebrated  of 
all  the  oracles  of  Greece.3  They  were  conducted  to  the 
temple  of  Apollo,  over  the  entrance  of  which  was  en¬ 
graven,  “  Know  Thyself”  ;  on  entering  the  temple  they 
were  purified  with  laurel  water.4  Apollonius  remained 
in  the  temple  that  night,  which,  says  Damis,  is  a  square 
edifice,  built  of  fine  stone,  and  erected  under  the  super¬ 
intendence  of  the  architects  Agamedes 5  and  Trophonius, 
and  is  approached  by  four  avenues.  One  side  of  the 
temple  is  appropriated  to  the  residence  of  the  priests,6 
and  for  all  holy  itinerants,  and  others  whose  presence 
will  not  desecrate  the  holy  place.  Apollonius  arose 
the  next  morning  with  the  sun,  and  performed  his 


1  Encyclopedia  Brit.,  art.  Am- 
phictyony. 

2  Inman’s  Ancient  Faiths,  vol.  ii. 
p.  426. 

3  Plutarch ,  vol.  ii.  p.  1 19 ;  Travels 
of  An  tenor  (Lantier),  vol.  ii.  p.  72. 

4  The  History  and  Antiquities  of 
the  Doric  Race  (Muller),  vol.  i.  p.224. 

5  Pausanias,  vol.  iii.  p.  24. 

6  These  were  pagan  priests. 
Nineteen  hundred  years  have 
passed,  the  temple  has  gone,  the 
pediment  adorned  with  Diana  and 
Apollo  and  the  Muses  is  gone.  The 
fountain  and  the  women  Hyades  are 
gone.  The  washerwoman  has 
invaded  the  sacred  fountain.  A 
Christian  priest  occupies  not  the 


temple,  but  a  hovel ;  he  still  enter¬ 
tains  travelers,  although  his  house 
has  but  one  room,  twenty-five  feet 
long,  no  furniture  except  two  chests, 
a  trough  for  making  bread,  a  sieve, 
a  few  jars,  some  mugs,  and  a  plenty 
of  blankets,  with  a  family  of  ten,  his 
library,  three  books  of  scripture. 
There  is  no  glass  in  the  house ;  light 
enters  through  a  square  hole ;  the 
outside  of  the  house  is  too  filthy  for 
description.  Such  was  and  such  is 
Parnassus.  The  priest  has  never 
deserted  it,  he  is  the  same  persistent 
thing  to-day  as  then;  his  line  of 
descent  is  as  clear,  he  has  simply 
degenerated.  Jupiter  or  Christ  is 
all  the  same  to  him ;  only  feed  him. 


126 


APOLLONIUS 


devotions  to  that  luminary.1  The  priest  who  had  charge 
of  the  temple,  and  whose  office  it  was  to  fix  crowns  of 
laurel  to  the  doors,  the  altars,  and  tripods,  and  to  draw 
the  waters  of  lustration  in  a  golden  vessel  from  the 
fountain  Castalis  with  which  to  sprinkle  the  pavement, 
the  gate,  and  the  laurel  crowns,  arose  at  the  same 
moment,  and  joined  Apollonius  in  his  devotion.  The 
Pythiae2  who  uttered  the  oracle  from  the  tripod  were  not 
admitted  to  their  high  office  under  fifty  years  of  age.3 
At  first  virgins  only  were  admitted,  but  one  of  them 
having  been  violated  by  a  Thessalian  named  Echecrates, 
they  afterward  chose  women  over  fifty,  who  simply 
wore  the  habit  of  virgins.4  This  temple  contained  a 
statue  of  Codrus,  the  last  king  of  Athens,  by  Phidias. 
The  oracle  had  declared  that  if  the  Dorians  killed 


Codrus,  they  would  not  conquer  Attica.  The  Attic 
king  hearing  of  this  went  in  disguise  to  the  Dorian 
camp,  picked  a  quarrel,  and  was  killed.5  Apollonius 
remained  but  a  short  time  at  Delphi,6  and  in  two  stages 


1  Larcher’s  Notes  on  Herodotus , 

V.  1 14. 

2  Mythology  and  Fables  of  the 
Ancients ,  etc.,  by  Abbe  Banier,  vol. 
i.  p.  283. 

3  Inman’s  Ancient  Faiths,  etc., 
vol.  ii.  p.  540. 

4  Tillemont’s  Hisioire  des  Empe- 
reurs  et  des  autres  Princes,  etc. 

5  A  bronze  medal  bears  the  por¬ 
trait  of  Codrus. 

Nero  removed  five  hundred 
brazen  images  from  the  sacred  pre¬ 
cincts  of  this  temple,  and  Constan¬ 
tine  destroyed  the  remainder. 

Croesus  had  sent  ^Esop  with  a 


treasure  of  gold  to  make  a  magnifi¬ 
cent  offering  to  Apollo,  and  to 
distribute  four  minae  to  each  of  the 
Delphians,  but  zEsop  became  dis¬ 
pleased  with  them,  offered  up  the 
sacrifice,  but  sent  the  money  back  to 
Sardis.  This  so  offended  the  Del¬ 
phians  that  they  accused  him  of 
having  stolen  some  of  the  sacred 
vessels,  and  condemned  him  to  be 
thrown  down  the  rock. 

6  The  Amphictyonic  council  had 
its  temple  at  Delphi,  and  the  con¬ 
vention  of  the  Boeotians,  Phocians, 
Dorians,  Euboeans,  and  Athenians 
still  held  alternate  sessions  here. 


OF  TYANA. 


127 


over  the  Locrian  road  he  completed  his  journey  to 
Thermopylae.  Here,  out  of  respect  to  the  memory  of 
Leonidas,  king  of  Sparta,  who  defended  the  Pass  of 
Thermopylae  against  Xerxes,  he  erected  a  chapel  around 
his  tomb,  as  he  had  to  Palamedes’. 

In  answer  to  an  inquiry  of  Damis,  Apollonius  said : 
“  Nothing  is  more  celebrated  than  the  Amphictyonic 
council.1  It  was  first  assembled  by  Amphictyon,  son 
of  Deucalion,  whose  dominion  was  on  the  confines  of 
Thermopylae  ;  after  this  they  assembled  twice  a  year, 
spring  and  autumn,  in  the  temple  of  Ceres  at  Ther¬ 
mopylae.  No  private  causes  were  determined  at  this 
council,  such  being  considered  of  too  small  consequence 
for  such  an  august  assembly.  The  business  related  to 
matters  of  war  and  religion,  and  the  decrees  were  en¬ 
graved  upon  marble  columns.” — - Arundel  Marbles . 

Near  the  tomb  of  Leonidas  was  the  hill  where  it  was 
said  the  Lacedaemons  fell,  overwhelmed  with  arrows. 
Apollonius  heard  his  friends  disputing  about  which  was 
considered  the  highest  ground  in  Greece ;  he  ascended 
the  hill,  and  cried  out:  “  This  is  the  highest  ground  in 
Greece ;  the  men  who  died  here  in  defense  of  liberty 


All  Hellas  yet  participated  in  the 
Olympian,  Nemean,  Isthmian,  and 
Pythian  games,  and  the  olive  crown 
was  still  deemed  the  highest  honor 
that  could  be  conferred  on  mortals. 
But  these  rites  had  lost  their  mean¬ 
ing,  and  had  no  religious  or  political 
significance. — The  History  and  An¬ 
tiquities  of  the  Doric  Race ,  by  C.  O. 
Muller,  vol.  i.  p.  279.  The  Am¬ 
phictyonic  synod  was  instituted 
1498  b.  c.,  and  was  the  most  influ¬ 


ential  of  all  the  institutions  of 
Greece.  It  was  not  discontinued 
until  the  close  of  the  fourth  century 
of  the  Christian  era.  Its  immediate 
office  was  to  attend  to  the  oracle  of 
Delphi,  and  was  composed  of  twelve 
of  the  wisest  and  best  men  from  all 
the  cities  of  Greece.  Apollonius 
was  a  delegate  to  this  important 
council. 

1  Lar cher’s  Notes  on  Herodotus , 

v.  1 13. 


128 


APOLLONIUS 


have  raised  this  above  many  Olympuses.  I  love  all 
these  men,  but  above  all  Magistius  the  Acarnanian, 
who,  foreknowing  what  they  were  to  suffer,  wished  to 
share  with  them  their  fate,  fearing  not  death,  but  fearing 
he  might  not  be  permitted  to  die  with  them.” 

Nero  was  now  reigning  at  Rome.  Apollonius  visited 
all  the  temples  of  Greece,  including  the  most  distant 
oracle  of  Dodona  in  Epirus,  at  the  source  of  the 
Thyamus  River,  nine  hundred  and  twenty  stadia  from 
Thermopylae,  and  had  spent  two  days  at  Argos 
Amphilochicum.1  He  knew  the  fame  of  the  Pythian, 
had  lodged  in  the  temples  of  Abae,  and  consulted  the 
oracle  of  Apollo.  He  had  entered  the  cave  of  Amphi- 
araus  and  Trophonius,  and  ascended  the  heights  of  the 
Helicon.2  After  this  method  he  passed  from  province 
to  province  and  temple  to  temple  without  distinction 
of  sect,  in  an  endeavor  to  purify  the  pagan  worship,  as 
he  had  done  at  Antioch,  Ephesus,  Smyrna,  and  Athens, 
establishing  new  parishes,  bishops,  presbyters,  elders, 
and  priests.  In  this  work  he  was  assisted  by  the  priests 
of  the  temples  and  his  disciples.  He  revised  the  pagan 
festivals,  amended  the  rites  of  sacrifice  and  penance, 
during  a  period  in  which  Paul  is  said  to  have  instituted 
Christian  churches  in  the  same  places.3 


1  There  are  records  that  the  oracle 
of  Dodona  continued  in  favor  until 
the  fifth  century.  It  had  a  Bishop 
and  his  See,  and  is  in  the  imperial 
documents  called  Bonditza.  The 
oracle  is  now  in  ruins,  but  a  church 
named  Bodista  occupies  a  spot  near 
its  site,  and  seems  to  have  inherited 
both  its  name  and  attributes. —  Cf. 
De  Origine  atque  Auctoribus  Orac- 


ulorum  Veterzi?n  Ethnicorum ,  Dis- 
sertationes  dues  (Anthony  Van  Dale, 
Amsterdam,  1700). 

2  See  Pausanias,  vol.  iii.  p.  70. 

3  It  was  for  the  permanent  estab¬ 
lishment  of  the  noble  endurance 
which  characterized  the  stoic  philos¬ 
ophy  that  Apollonius  labored.  The 
culture  initiated  by  Pericles,  the  wis¬ 
dom  embodied  by  Minerva,  instead 


OF  TYANA. 


129 


After  these  itineraries  Apollonius  turned  his  face 
toward  Athens,  with  the  object,  however,  of  immediately 
departing  for  Corinth.1 

At  this  time  Demetrius,  the  philosopher,  was  at  Cor¬ 
inth.  He  was  a  friend  of  Apollonius,  a  cynic,  and  a 
man  who  fully  comprehended  the  entire  force  of  the 
cynic  philosophy ; 2  he  is  mentioned  with  great  respect 
by  Favorinus  in  his  orations.  Demetrius  felt  the  same 
zeal3  in  favor  of  the  wisdom  of  Apollonius,  as  Antis- 


of  being  subjects  of  reminiscent  de¬ 
light,  he  intended  to  make  an  in¬ 
spiration  to  practical  reform  there 
and  then.  And  even  in  our  day, 
although  the  halls  of  the  philoso¬ 
phers  are  no  more,  yet  schools  of 
science  abound,  the  plays  of  Sopho¬ 
cles  are  only  a  memory ;  yet  the 
people  of  Athens  have  newspapers. 
Mythology  is  a  poetic  dream ; 
yet  popular  education  is  a  grand 
reality;  Pallas  Athene  is  dethroned; 
the  days  of  naiads,  satyrs,  and  titans 
are  over;  while  those  of  the  steam- 
engine  and  telegraph  have  come. 
Let  the  Greeks  ever  remember  and 
obey  the  grand  old  inscription  on 
the  temple  of  the  Delphic  Apollo  : 
“Know  thyself”;  “Let  the  dead 
past  bury  its  dead.” 

1  Athens,  the  greatest  name  of  all 
Greece,  does  not  hold  its  rank  in 
monetary  art;  but  although  it  did 
not  rank  high  in  point  of  art,  yet  it 
circulated  more  widely  than  the  coin 
of  any  Grecian  state.  The  Athenian 
coins  bore  the  symbol  of  the  tutelary 
deity,  Minerva  (Athena),  the  owl. 
They  were  issued  in  all  the  metals, 
and  had  a  wide-spread  commercial 

17 


value.  Extant  coins  in  the  posses¬ 
sion  of  collectors  prove  that  Athens 
was  in  full  tide  of  her  commercial 
glory  long  after  she  had  historically 
passed  into  oblivion.  The  complete 
blotting  out  of  Athenian  history 
must  have  been  the  work  of  omnip¬ 
otent  hands.  And  the  fifth  century 
of  the  Christian  era  found  Athens 
sunk  in  a  darkness  greater  than 
that  from  which  it  emerged  ten  cen¬ 
turies  before.  Her  coins,  however, 
escaped  the  despoiler,  and  hence  we 
know  the  fact  of  her  greatness,  but 
are  deprived  of  the  detailed  his¬ 
tory. —  H.  Goltzii,  Grceciee  universes 
Asiceque  Minoris  et  Insularum  Nu- 
mismata  vetarinn ,  p.  220. 

2  Apollonius  de  (Chassang), 

p.  163. 

3  Demetrius  was  a  cynic  philoso¬ 
pher  whom  the  Emperor  Caligula 
wished  to  gain  in  his  interests  by 
large  presents,  but  Demetrius  re¬ 
fused  them  with  indignation,  and 
said,  “  If  Caligula  wishes  to  bribe  me 
let  him  send  me  his  crown.”  Ves¬ 
pasian  afterward,  during  his  reign, 
became  displeased  with  his  inso¬ 
lence,  and  banished  him  to  an  island. 


130 


APOLLONIUS 


thenes  did  for  that  of  Socrates,  which  he  gave  as  his 
reason  for  changing  his  philosophy  and  becoming  a 
follower  of  Apollonius  and  for  recommending  him  to 
his  friends,  of  whom  Menippus,  a  young  Lycian,  about 
twenty-five  years  of  age,  was  one ;  he  was  intelligent 
and  handsome,  and,  with  his  open,  manly  air  of  an 
athlete,  won  the  esteem  of  Apollonius,  concerning 
whom  more  will  be  said  hereafter. 

Apollonius,  after  visiting  Marathon,1  returned  to 
Athens  by  the  Euboean  road,  and  left  the  same  day  for 
Corinth  by  the  Sacred  Way,  which  begins  at  the  temple 
of  Theseus  and  the  stoa  Basileus  and  ends  at  Eleusis. 
It  gains  the  open  country  at  the  gate  Dipylum;2  near 
this  gate,  just  beyond  the  city  walls  on  the  Sacred  Way, 
are  the  sepulchers  of  the  Spartan  polemarchs,  Chaeron, 
Thibarchus,  and  other  Lacedaemonians  killed  in  battle. 
There  were  also  the  sepulchers  of  Pericles,  Chabrias, 
and  Thrasybulus.3  But  the  most  remarkable  of  all  the 
monuments  along  this  way  before  coming  to  the  road 
which  branches  off  to  the  academy  of  Plato,  both  for 
magnitude  and  ornament,  were  those  of  a  Rhodian  who 
dwelt  in  Athens,  and  the  one  built  by  Harpalus,  a 
Macedonian,  in  honor  of  his  wife  Pythonice,  who  had 
been  a  courtesan  at  Athens  and  Corinth.  Pausanias 
says  the  latter  “  was  the  most  remarkable  of  all  the 
sepulchral  monuments  of  Greece.”  They  turned  aside 
to  visit  the  academy  where  Plato  taught,  and  which  he 

1  Larcher’s  Notes  on  Herodotus ,  3  Pausanias ,  vol.  i.  p.  85  ;  Herod- 

vi.  145.  otus,  ix.  35;  Thucydides,  i.  107; 

2  Travels  in  Italy,  Greece,  and  the  Diodorus,  xi.  80 ;  also  Philostrate  de 

Ionian  Islands,  etc.,  by  H.  W.  Will-  Vita  Apolloni  Tyanei,  libri  octo, 
iams,  vol.  ii.  p.  300,  etc.  grcece  (1501). 


OF  TYANA. 


13  I 

in  his  day  deserted  for  unhealthfulness.  This  school  was 
surrounded  with  a  wall  built  at  a  great  expense  by 
Hipparchus,  and  in  ancient  times  it  was  a  place  of  great 
sanctity ;  it  was  a  profanation  to  laugh  there.  Inside 
the  inclosure  was  an  altar  to  Prometheus,1  also  an  altar 
of  the  Muses,  and  another  of  Hermes,  and  within  these 
again  were  those  of  Minerva  and  Hercules.  The  acad¬ 
emy  grounds  also  contained  the  garden  of  Attalus, 
where  the  sophist  Lacydes  had  his  school,  a  poGpos 
(tank).  Near  to  the  academy  on  the  other  side  of  the 
road  were  many  monuments  of  distinguished  Athenians 
who  had  been  slain  in  battle.2  There  is  a  temple  on  the 
road  (Sacred  Way)  common  to  Venus  and  Apollo,  at 
which  Apollonius  and  his  companions  spent  the  night. 
Just  beyond  they  came  to  a  place  called  Erineus,  where 
it  is  said  that  Pluto  descended  and  carried  off  Proser¬ 
pine.  Apollonius  classes  all  these  as  idle  tales  and 
fables.3 

At  Eleusis  there  is  a  temple  to  Triptolemus,  another 
to  Diana  Propylaea,  one  to  Neptune  (father),  and  a  well 
called  Callichorum,  where  the  Eleusinian  women  per¬ 
formed  a  lascivious  dance  and  sang  in  honor  of  the 
goddess.  And  it  is  here  the  sacred  barley,  the  sacri¬ 
ficial  cakes,  the  mysterious  rites,  concerning  which  the 
uninitiated  were  not  permitted  even  to  inquire,  were 
performed.  These  were  the  greatest  mysteries  of 
Greece,  into  which  every  one  was  desirous  of  being 
initiated.  On  approaching  Eleusis  from  Athens,  Apol- 

1  Fausanias,  vol.  i.  p.  91.  tanti,  2  vols.  (London,  1841),  vol.  i. 

2  The  Topography  of  Athens,  with  p.  593,  etc. 

some  Remarks  on  its  Antiquities ,  by  3  Mythology  and  Fables  of  the 

William  Martin  Leake,  of  the  Dilet-  Ancients  (Banier),  vol.  iii.  p.  61. 


132 


APOLLON/US 


Ionius  says  the  sacred  buildings  standing  near  the  east¬ 
ern  entrance  conceal  the  town,  which  on  closer  view 
augment  the  awe  and  reverence  for  the  place.  They 
represent  the  genius  of  Pericles,  Phidias,  Ictinus,  Mete- 
genes,  and  Philo.1 

On  departing  from  Eleusis  Apollonius  continued 
his  journey  to  Corinth,  taking  the  road  to  Megara 
(y)  MsYapixvj).  At  Megara  he  visited  the  temple  of 
Apollo  at  the  gate  of  the  city,  and  was  hospitably 
entertained  by  the  priests.  Near  to  this  temple  was 
the  temple  of  Diana,  which  contained  twelve  statues 
of  the  gods ;  besides,  there  were  statues  of  the  god¬ 
desses  Persuasion  and  Consolation  by  Praxiteles.  The 
peculiar  province  of  these  goddesses  was  to  attend 
newly  married  females.2  Further  on  was  the  temple 
of  Isis.  Damis  became  interested  in  the  history  of 
Hyllus,  son  of  Hercules,  whose  tomb  was  at  Megara. 
He  was  slain  in  a  single  combat  with  Echenaus,  the 
Arcadian,  son  of  Hiropus.3  Here  also  the  philosopher 
Euclid  was  born  and  flourished,  and  the  Megarians 
struck  a  medal  to  his  memory.  The  city  and  temples 
were  much  in  decay  and  of  little  interest  to  Apol¬ 
lonius.4 

While  affairs  were  thus  quietly  transpiring  in  Greece 
(a.  D.  56-57),  disgraceful  scenes  were  taking  place  in 
Rome,  the  capital.  Nero,  the  monarch  of  an  empire 
extending  from  the  Atlantic  Ocean  to  the  River  Eu- 

1  Coins  of  Eleusis  are  still  com-  2  The  History  and  Antiquities  of 
mon,  representing  Demeter  drawn  the  Doric  Race ,  etc.,  by  C.  O.  Miil- 
by  dragons  or  serpents,  inscribed  ler,  vol.  i.  p.  97,  vol.  ii.  p.  186. 
EAEUSI  within  a  wreath  of  ears  3  Pausanias,  vol.  i.  p.  119. 
of  corn.  4  See  Encyclopcedia  Britannica . 


OF  TYANA. 


133 


phrates,  was  wasting  himself  in  debauchery  and  crime. 
He  would  pass  whole  nights  in  taverns,  and  even  en¬ 
gage  in  drunken  broils  in  the  streets.  After  dark,  with 
some  of  his  mad  companions,  he  would  sally  out  in 
the  public  highway  to  attack,  insult,  and  even  rob  the 
most'  respectable  individuals.  He  would  break  into 
houses  and  shops  and  plunder  them,  and  sell  the  goods 
thus  stolen  at  auction  the  next  day  in  the  palace.1  He 
procured  the  murder  of  his  brother  Britannicus,  A.  D. 
56;  and  finally,  A.  D.  60,  procured  two  villains  base 
enough  to  assassinate  his  mother,  Agrippina,  who  had 
committed  almost  every  known  crime  to  secure  for  him 
the  crown,  and  who  bore  the  relation  to  the  Emperors 
of  Rome  of  granddaughter,  sister,  wife,  and  mother.2 
Remorse  (if  possible)  never  deserted  Nero,  who  from 
this  time,  as  if  to  drown  an  awakened  conscience,  in¬ 
dulged  in  the  follies  of  the  play-house,  and,  in  A.  D. 
62,  added  to  his  crimes  the  murder  of  his  wife  Octavia, 
sister  of  Britannicus  and  daughter  of  Claudius. 

At  Corinth  Apollonius  found  a  deputation  of  Elians 
in  waiting,  who  had  come  to  meet  him  and  invite  him 


1  Tacitus,  Annals,  13,  c.  xxv. ; 
Suetonius,  Nero,  xxvi.  ;  Dion  Cas¬ 
sius,  lxii.  16;  Juvenal’s  Satires ; 
cf  Eutropius’s  Abridgment  of  Ro¬ 
man  History,  b.  7,  etc.  ( Breviarium 
Rerum  Romanorum ). 

2  The  infamous  Agrippina  II.  was 
daughter  to  Germanicus,  grand¬ 
daughter  to  Augustus,  sister  to 
Caligula,  wife  of  Claudius,  and 
mother  of  Nero.  With  all  her 
crimes  she  deserved  better  in  her 
old  age  from  this  monster  son. 


Drusilla,  her  sister,  the  second 
daughter,  who  committed  incest 
with  her  brother  Caligula,  gained 
after  her  decease  a  place  in  heaven 
among  the  celestial  gods.  The  un¬ 
erring  testimony  of  some  Greek 
medals  which  have  reached  our 
day  bear  the  style  and  title  of  the 
goddess  Drusilla. — Lives  of  Mar¬ 
cus  Valerius,  Messala  Corvinus, 
and  Titus  Pomponius,  etc.  (Rev. 
Ed.  Berwick,  1813,  London),  p. 
172. 


134 


APOLLONIUS 


to  visit  Olympia  in  Elis  during  the  Olympian  games, 
then  about  to  commence.1  He  therefore  remained  no 
longer  in  Corinth  than  necessary  to  pay  his  respects  to 
the  philosopher  Demetrius  and  visit  the  celebrated 
naked  statue  of  Hercules  by  Daedalus,  erected  on  the 
Aero  Corinthus,2  which  he  describes  as  resembling  the 
Acropolis  at  Athens.3  Apollonius  says:  “For  these 
marvelous  productions  of  Greek  art  we  are  indebted 
to  the  living  models  of  manliness,  grace,  and  beauty 
which  were  daily  before  the  artist’s  eye  in  the  gymna¬ 
sium  or  the  sacred  games.  These  arense  of  the  athletes 
offered  rare  opportunities  for  the  study  of  muscle,  pos¬ 
ture,  form,  and  motion,  and  hence  the  massive  limbs 
and  startling  sinews  of  the  statue  of  Hercules.”  Apol¬ 
lonius  now  proceeded  immediately  with  the  deputation 


1  Pausanias ,  vol.  ii.  p.  24. 

The  device  of  the  Corinthian  coin, 
like  that  of  Eleusis,  was  the  Peg¬ 
asus  (the  type  of  Eleusis  was  more 
frequently  the  sow),  with  the  head 
of  Minerva  on  the  reverse.  She  is 
here  said  to  have  been  the  protect¬ 
ress  of  Bellerophon,  who  by  her 
assistance  was  enabled  to  possess 
himself  of  a  winged  horse.,  and  hence 
Pegasus.  She  had  a  temple  as  such 
at  Corinth.  Eckhel,  who  ought  to 
be  authority  on  the  subject,  says 
that  “  Corinth  coined  no  proper 
money.”  All  of  the  coins  here 
spoken  of  have  Latin  legends  ex¬ 
cept  those  struck  to  Antinous,  which 
have  Greek  inscriptions.  We  dis¬ 
miss  these  as  possessing  no  great 
curiosity  and  of  but  little  value  to 


the  historian, — with  this  exception 
only,  knowing  as  we  do  from  all 
historic  experience  of  that  period 
that  the  slightest  political  or  relig¬ 
ious  transmutation  brought  about 
the  substitution  of  an  entire  new 
coinage, —  it  being  the  ultimate  mes¬ 
senger  of  a  successful  revolution, 
and  many  times  bore  the  first  intel¬ 
ligence  to  the  distant  subject  of  a 
change  in  government.  If  we  are  not 
in  error  concerning  these  facts,  and 
Corinth  was  no  exception  to  the  rule, 
then  Christian  writers  have  erred 
many  centuries  concerning  the  period 
when  Corinth  became  Christian. — 
The  History  and  Antiquities  of  the 
Dome  Race  (Muller),  vol.  i.  p.  96,  etc. 

2  Pausanias,  vol.  i.  p.  147. 

3  Travels  of  Antenor,  p.  102,  etc. 


OF  TYANA. 


135 

to  Olympia.  In  passing  through  many  places  in  Sicy- 
onia  and  Arcadia  sacred  to  the  worship  of  Proserpina 
Soteira,  the  virgin  of  salvation,  the  people  turned 
out  to  show  their  respect  for  him.  As  they  came 
near  to  Olympia,  the  roads  were  thronged  with  people, 
pilgrims,  priests,  curious  travelers,  athletes,  strolling 
minstrels,  and  thousands  of  petty  performers  and  ven¬ 
ders  of  small  wares,  all  destined  for  the  great  festival. 
The  prodigious  concourse  of  people  which  the  celebra¬ 
tion  of  these  games  drew  to  Olympia  enriched  the  city 
and  all  Elis.1  Nothing  in  Greece  was  comparable  to 
this  entertainment.  On  his  arrival  at  Olympia  Apollo¬ 
nius  found  embassadors  from  Lacedaemon  or  Sparta, 
waiting  to  receive  him  and  to  request  him  to  pay  them 
also  a  visit  after  the  close  of  the  games.  He  accepted 
their  kind  invitation,  but  he  scanned  the  physical 
appearance  of  the  embassadors,  and  observed  that 
there  was  indeed  but  little  in  that  relation  to  remind 
him  of  the  reputation  of  the  Spartans  of  old,  of  whom 
he  had  heard  so  much.  They  were  effeminate,  and 
looked  as  if  they  had  breathed  all  their  lives  the  pollu¬ 
tions  of  the  Sybaris.  He  at  once  wrote  to  the  ephori,2 
declaring  against  their  modern  methods  with  young  men, 
and  advising  them  to  establish  the  ancient  regime.  He 
was  afterward  informed  that  the  ephori  would  comply 
with  every  letter  of  his  instruction  should  he  remain  of 
the  same  mind  after  visiting  them.  He  then  wrote  them 
another  letter  more  concise  than  the  ancient  Scytale. 

1  Larcher’s  Notes  on  Herodotus ,  word  ephori  exactly  corresponds  to 

viii.  20.  the  word  episkopus  or  bishop. — See 

2  Plutarch ,  vol.  ii.  p.  323.  The  Liddell’s  Greek  Lexicon. 


APOLLONIUS 


136 

“ Apollonius  to  the  Ephori : 

Xl  Greeting :  If  is  the  part  of  men  to  err,  but  of 
ingenuous  men  to  acknowledge  and  promise  to 
remedy  it.”1 

Damis  describes  Olympia  as  consisting  of  two 
parts, —  the  precinct  of  Zeus,  known  also  as  the  Altis, 
and  the  sacred  grove,  a  walled  inclosure,  forming  an 
irregular  quadrangular  inclosure  with  a  length  of  about 
eight  stadia,  parallel  with  the  river,  and  about  four  stadia 
in  width.  Within  this  inclosure  were:  1.  The  altars  for 
the  worship  of  Zeus,  combined  with  the  cult  of  the  hero 
Pelops ;  2.  The  temple  of  Zeus ;  3.  The  temple  of 
Hera ;  4.  The  temple  of  the  mother  of  the  gods 
(Metroon) ;  then  the  votive  edifices  erected  by  the 
individual  states.2  Twelve  treasure-houses  to  contain 
the  treasures  of  the  individual  states  (without  the  in¬ 
closure)  Damis  names  Sicyon,  Syracuse,  Epidaurus, 
Byzantium,  Sybaris,  Cyrene,  Selinus,  Megara,  and 
Gela.  The  exedra  of  Herodes  Atticus  stood  on  the 
north  of  the  Altis,  within  the  inclosure.  Outside  the 
walls,  on  the  north-west,  were  the  gymnasium,  Palaestra 
(for  wrestlers),  and  Council  Hall.  Nero’s  house  and  the 
hippodrome  for  the  races  —  chariot,  horse,  and  foot  — 
were  on  the  south-east.  These,  as  Damis  informs  us, 
embraced  a  few  only  of  the  structures  of  the  place, 
while  every  available  space,  not  otherwise  occupied, 
was  filled  with  statues  and  votive  offerings.  There 
were  six  bronze  statues  of  Jupiter,  which  had  been 

1  Apollonius  advised  them  to  pro-  living  be  reestablished.  “  Then,” 
hibit  the  use  of  pitch  in  the  baths  said  he,  “  the  Lacedaemonian  would 
and  all  other  debilitating  prepara-  begin  to  look  like  himself  again.  ” 
tions,  and  let  the  ancient  mode  of  2  These  were  all  Doric. 


OF  TYANA. 


137 


erected  from  the  fines  imposed  upon  wrestlers  who  had 
used  fraud  to  procure  the  prize.  There  were  monu¬ 
ments  of  every  epoch  and  from  every  region  where 
Greeks  were  found  and  the  Greek  language  spoken. 
Apollonius’s  time  was  exclusively  taken  up  with  the 
religious  ceremonies  within  the  inclosure.1  Damis  and 
his  companions  in  the  mean  time,  however,  had  become 
enamored  with  the  sports  outside,  which  consisted  of 
horse-racing,  foot-racing,  leaping,  javelin-throwing, 
quoit-throwing,  wrestling,  and  boxing.  “  The  wrest¬ 
lers,”  he  says,  “  were  naked,  anointed,  and  covered 
with  sand,  that  they  might  take  hold.”  Striking  was 
not  allowed.  The  boxing,  however,  was  a  severer  part 
of  the  sport,  and  was  indulged  in  only  by  those  of  the 
profession ;  it  was  not  held  in  the  highest  repute ; 
it  was  practiced  naked,  with  clinched  fists ;  the  victory 
was  awarded  to  him  who  could  best  ward  off  the  blows 
of  an  antagonist.  The  exercise  was  violent  and  dan¬ 
gerous,  and  two  of  the  combatants  lost  their  lives. 
There  was  another  method,  called  the  “  Klimax,”  where 
the  combatants  faced  each  other,  but  never  warded  the 
blows  at  all ;  as  soon  as  one  was  knocked  down,  the 
other  fell  upon  him  with  continued  blows,  until  oftener 
than  otherwise  he  arose  from  the  dead  body  of  his 
adversary.  The  games  continued  for  five  days.2 

Once  at  Olympia,  as  Apollonius  was  absorbed  in  the 
contemplation  of  the  most  famous  statue  of  Olympus 
(Jove,  Zeus),  he  unconsciously  ejaculated,  “  Hail,  pro¬ 
pitious  Jove;  your  goodness  and  clemency  reach  and 
are  imparted  to  all  mankind.”  Gaining  his  presence 

1  Mythology  and  Fables  of  the  Ancients  (Banier),  vol.  iv.  p.  424. 

2  The  History  and  Antiquities  of  the  Doric  Race  (Muller),  vol.  i.  p.  315. 

18 


138 


APOLLONIUS 


of  mind,  he  immediately  turned  about  and  found  him¬ 
self  facing  the  brazen  statue  of  Milo,1  a  pupil  of  Pythag¬ 
oras,  who  is  said  to  have  been  a  wrestler  of  such  invin¬ 
cible  strength  that  he  once  carried  a  bull  on  his 
shoulders  to  the  sacrifice  and  killed  it  with  a  single 
blow  of  his  fist.2 

As  he  stood  contrasting  the  two  characters,  Olym¬ 
pian  Jove  and  Milo,  a  young  arrogant  philosopher 
addressed  him,  praying  the  favor  of  an  audience  the 
next  day,  saying  that  he  had  something  to  recite. 
Apollonius  asked  him  what  it  was.  He  replied,  an 
oration  composed  in  praise  of  Jupiter.  Apollonius 
inquired  of  him,  “what  he  saw  in  Jupiter  Olympus  to 
commend  which  had  not  already  been  told?”3  After, 
however,  accepting  the  appointment,  and  patiently 
hearing  the  young  man  through,  he  said :  “  I  think 
Jupiter  will  care  but  little  for  your  praise,  and  I  would 
advise  you  as  a  panegyrist  to  turn  your  attention  to 
things  more  within  the  reach  of  your  talent  and  expe¬ 
rience,  as  the  ills  of  humanity  rather  than  the  adulation 
of  the  gods  ;  dropsy,  catarrh,  and  gout  are  prolific  sub¬ 
jects,  and  you  might  gain  a  reputation  by  attending  the 

1  Larcher’s  Notes  on  Herodotus ,  rerum  naturalium  passivum  ut  acti- 
ii.  p.  209.  “The  statue, of  this  prince  yum  Jupiter  a  quo  impraegnata  Juno 
of  wrestlers,”  Apollonius  informs  Semina  rerum  divino  utero  concipit. 
us,  “  blasphemously  represented  a  Quorum  cum  innumera  sit  multitu- 
priest  of  Juno  standing  on  a  small  do,  atque  varietas  ista  Junonis  tot 
buckler  with  a  pomegranate  in  his  seminibus  foetae  faecunditas  malo 
hand.”  “The  symbolic  pomegran-  Punico  Symbolice  fuit  designata  in 
ate,”  says  Pausanias,  “  belongs  to  quo  maxima,  inter  omnia  roma  se- 
an  arcane  discourse  (mysterium  ar-  minum  copia. 

canum),  which  is  thus  explained  2  Thomas’s  Dictionary  of  Biogra- 
by  Olearius :  Nempe  in  <l>5a'.y.Y]  phy  and  Mythology. 

TeOeXeYe/AevY].  Juno  est  principium  3  Many  Cults ;  see  Cumcean  Sibyl. 


OF  TYANA. 


139 


dead  to  their  graves,  and  relating  the  many  qualities  of  the 
disease  of  which  each  died.  And  it  might  also  soothe 
the  grief  of  the  bereaved  relatives  to  know  that  the  death 
was  caused  by  a  distemper  which  prevailed  in  families  of 
the  nobility.”  Apollonius  dismissed  him,  advising  him 
never  to  attempt  the  praises  of  one  whose  good  qualities 
are  so  little  known  as  those  of  the  gods.  The  discourses 
of  Apollonius  at  Olympia  turned  chiefly  upon  topics 
more  in  the  relation  of  man  to  man  and  to  himself  than 
to  the  gods;  such  as  fortitude,  wisdom,  temperance, 
charity,  and,  in  short,  all  the  virtues.  On  these  subjects 
he  always  discoursed,  like  the  stoics,  in  the  porch  of  the 
temple  of  Jupiter  at  Olympia,1  the  most  famous  of  all 
the  temples  of  ancient  Greece,2  and  his  eloquence  en¬ 
deared  all  hearers  to  him. 

One  day,  as  Apollonius  was  expressing  himself  won¬ 
derfully  pleased  with  the  good  behavior,  order,  religious 
zeal,  and  honesty  of  the  Eleans  at  their  festival,3  Damis, 


1  The  statue  of  the  Olympian  Jove 
(Jupiter  Olympus  -  Zeus),  before 
which  all  Greece  bowed  with  pro¬ 
found  veneration  and  respect,  was 
the  most  celebrated  in  the  world ; 
it  was  forty-two  feet  high  and  the 
most  majestic  representation  of  an 
impersonated  deified  humanity  ever 
conceived  by  man.  Juno  of  Argos, 
Hera,  the  legitimate  wife  of  Ju¬ 
piter,  and  who  shared  his  attri¬ 
butes,  also  adorned  this  temple. 
She  was  an  ideal  matron.  The 
former  is  the  master-piece  of  Phidias, 
and  the  latter  of  his  worthy  rival, 
Polycletus  of  Sicyon.  After  them 
came  Praxiteles  and  Scopas.  The 


most  faithful  representation  of  this 
statue  of  Jupiter  is  preserved  to  us 
on  coins  and  medals  of  the  reign  of 
Pladrian.  This  statue  was  burned, 
A.  D.  408.  On  the  Elis  coins  of 
Hadrian,  it  is  said  to  be  excellently 
represented.— Hist.  Greek  Sculp¬ 
ture  (Murray),  p.  268;  Heyne,  An- 
tiq.  Aufs.  i.  2037.  Plutarch,  Phi- 
lochorus,  and  Diodorus  Siculus 
all  agree  that  Phidias  embezzled 
some  of  the  gold  and  fled  to  the 
Eleans. 

2  History  of  Ancient  Art  (Franz 
von  Reber),  p.  222. 

3  Life  of  Apollonius  of  Tyana 
(Rev.  Edward  Berwick),  p.  222. 


140 


APOLLONIUS 


who  had  not  formed  so  favorable  an  opinion  of  them, 
thought  it  nothing,  remarkable  for  them  to  acquit  them¬ 
selves  nobly  one  day  in  five  years.  After  the  Olym¬ 
pian  games  he  visited  and  remained  some  time  in 
Sparta ;  here  the  Lacedaemonians  came  in  crowds  to 
hear  him,  and  pronounced  him,  in  the  presence  of 
Jupiter,  their  guest,  the  father  and  director  of  the 
young,  and  the  ornament  of  the  old.1  He  inquired 
well  into  the  habits  of  the  Spartans,  to  the  end  that  he 
might  decide  upon  the  best  method  for  the  production 
of  perfect  men ;  he  discovered  that  their  habits  were 
simple,  mode  of  life  plain  ;  there  was  but  little  con¬ 
struction  about  their  houses, —  most  of  their  time  was 
spent  in  the  open  air, —  their  dress  of  the  most  unosten¬ 
tatious  material  and  cut — it  being  woolen,  without 
sleeves,  and  fastened  by  clasps  ;  intoxicating  drinks 
were  prohibited  ;  adultery  was  unknown ;  one  custom 
only  among  them  Apollonius  held  to  be  highly  repre¬ 
hensible  :  that  of  permitting  their  maidens  to  attend  the 
games  and  festivals,  and  excluding  the  married  women. 
He  commended  them  upon  the  discontinuance  of  the 
old  custom  of  “  showing  their  young  women  naked.” 2 

As  a  race,  they  appeared  in  a  monstrous  contrast 
with  the  deputation  which  waited  upon  Apollonius  at 
Olympia.  The  Lacedaemonians  he  describes  as  a  race 
of  soldiers ;  they  cultivate  neither  arts,  commerce,  nor 
agriculture.  All  pursuits  with  the  Spartan  nobility, 
except  that  of  soldier,  were  looked  upon  as  dishonora¬ 
ble  ;  this,  Apollonius  declares  their  most  pronounced 
characteristic,  and  he  relates  the  case  of  a  young  Lace- 

1  Apollonius  de  Tyane ,  sa  Vie,  etc.  (Chassang),  p.  384. 

2  History  of  the  Doric  Race ,  vol.  ii.  p.  272. 


OF  TYANA. 


141 

daemonian,1  of  noble  extraction,  who  was  living  under 
accusation  of  transgressing  the  customs  and  laws  of  his 
country,  inasmuch  as  he  was  so  devoted  to  nautical 
pursuits  and  commercial  speculations  as  to  engage  in 
traffic  between  Carthage  and  Sicily  in  vessels  of  his 
own  construction ;  and  so  infatuated  was  he  with  this 
pursuit,  that  he  neglected  those  duties  to  the  republic 
and  to  that  nation  who  had  made  his  ancestors  famous, 
some  of  whom  were  of  the  gymnasiarchs  and  ephori, 
and  all  guardians  of  the  laws ;  he  boasted  in  being  a 
descendant  of  Callicratidas  (KaX)axpcmode),  the  Spartan 
general  who  succeeded  Lysander  during  the  Peloponne¬ 
sian  war,  and  who  blockaded  the  port  of  Mitylene.2 
The  charges  against  him,  and  for  which  he  was  incar¬ 
cerated,  were  in  depriving  his  country  of  services  justly 
her  due,  and  in  prostituting  a  name  so  glorious  in  her 
annals  ¥  the  gratification  of  personal  avarice  ;  the  pen¬ 
alty  for  this  offense  was  a  sacrifice  of  name  and  nation¬ 
ality.  Apollonius  was  determined  to  dissuade  this 
young  Spartan  from  so  dishonorable  a  pursuit.  He 
demonstrated  to  him  that  although  his  occupation  in¬ 
volved  large  profits  and  promised  great  wealth,  it 
was  a  dishonor  to  the  great  names  of  Sparta,  and  that, 
moreover,  one  or  two  bad  investments  might  render 
him  unable  to  pay  his  debts  and  he  be  compelled  to 
spend  his  life  in  a  debtor’s  prison,  a  poor  compensa¬ 
tion,  indeed,  for  a  name  glorious  in  the  records  of  his 
country  which  he  had  inherited  and  which  it  was  his 
duty  to  perpetuate.  Apollonius  further  proved  to  him 
that  Sparta,  under  military  glory,3  rose  to  the  skies,  but 

1  Apollonius  de  Tyane ,  par  A.  Chassang,  p.  1 70. 

2  Berwick,  p.  226.  3  Sparta  was  800  years  without  walls. 


142 


APOLLONIUS 


as  a  commercial  people  they  had  become  the  prey  of 
all  the  earth,  and  had  been  blotted  from  both  land  and 
sea.  To  all  this  the  young  Callicratidas  listened  with 
marked  attention,  and  shortly  after  resolved  to  reform 
his  life  and  pursue  the  road  to  fame  rather  than  afflu¬ 
ence  ;  whereupon  he  was  released  from  confinement 
and  furnished  with  a  commission  becoming  the  dignity 
of  his  family  name.1 

In  casting  our  eyes  momentarily  at  this  time  toward 
Jerusalem,  we  find  that  riots,  disorders,  robberies,  and 
murders  are  fast  working  out  the  destiny  of  the  Jewish 
people.  Festus  has  just  been  appointed  procurator, 
whose  efforts  to  pacify  the  factions  are  so  abortive,  that 
an  outbreak  seems  inevitable.2  A  temporary  stay  is, 
however,  brought  about  by  the  sudden  death  of  Festus. 
In  the  mean  time,  A.  D.  62-3,  great  and  stirring  events 
were  transpiring  at  Rome.  Nero  has  married  Poppasa 
and  put  Octavia  to  death ;  Tigellinus,  a  court  favorite, 
has  been  appointed  praetorian  prefect.3 

The  infamous  Pallas,  who  was  a  party  to  the  murder 
of  Claudius,  an  accomplice  of  Agrippina,  had  been  con- 


1  A pollonius  de  Tyane ,  sa  Vie ,  ses 
Voyages,  ses  Prodiges,  etc.,  par  A. 
Chassang,  p.  170. 

2  The  History  of  the  Israelites 
and  Jtidceans,  etc.,  vol.  ii.  p.  319, 
et  seq. 

3  Tigellinus  Sophonius  was  born 
at  Agrigentum  in  Sicily.  He  was  a 
horse-breaker  by  profession,  and  he 
catered  to  the  worst  passions  of 
Nero. —  Eutropius’s  Abridgment  of 
Roman  Hist.,  b.  7,  c.  xiv;  Tacitus’ 
Annals,  xiv.  51. 

He  was  proprietor  of  a  magnificent 


estate  called  the  ALmilian  gardens, 
on  the  slope  of  the  Pincian,  between 
the  Piazza  del  Popolo  and  the  Piazza 
di  Spagna ;  above  it  was  the  burial- 
place  of  the  Domitii,  where  Nero’s 
remains  now  repose.  Tigellinus 
committed  suicide,  A.  D.  70,  to  es¬ 
cape  a  worse  death.  He  was  disso¬ 
lute,  revengeful,  and  unprincipled; 
he  was  the  evil  genius  of  the  em¬ 
peror,  whose  last  noble  impulse  he 
sought  to  stifle. —  See  Tacitus’ 
History ,  i.  72;  also  Dion  Cassius , 
lxii.  13,  lxiii.  12. 


OF  TYANA. 


143 


demned,  and  his  wealth,  consisting  of  twelve  millions 
of  dollars,  confiscated,  A.  D.  62.  During  this  year 
Boadicea,  Queen  of  Britain,  humbled  the  Roman  pride 
by  defeating  Anneus  and  slaughtering  seventy  thou¬ 
sand  Romans.  Upon  this  information  court  manners 
slightly  improved  at  the  capital.  It  was  manifest  that 
Rome  was  no  longer  omnipotent,  and  Apollonius  de¬ 
termined  during  the  lull  and  after  the  winter  was  over 
on  visiting  Rome,  although  he  was  well  informed  that 
Nero  had  no  partiality  for  philosophers,  and  that,  under 
the  espionage  of  Tigellinus,  he  would  be  surrounded 
with  spies  immediately  on  entering  the  city.  But, 
notwithstanding  all  the  dangers,  he  determined  to  take 
no  longer  upon  rumor,  but  to  see  for  himself  the  splen¬ 
dor  of  this  “  Queen  of  Cities,”  crowning  her  seven  hills 
in  marble  majesty,  the  mistress  of  the  world,  conquered 
by  the  valor  of  her  sons,  and  now  trailing  in  the  dust 
through  the  imbecility  of  the  imperial  homicide.1 
While  he  was  thus  contemplating  his  journey  to  Rome, 
he  had  a  dream,2  which  caused  him  to  change  his 
course,  and  he  thought  proper  to  go  into  Crete,  the 
birthplace  of  Zeus.  Consequently,  from  Sparta  he  pro¬ 
ceeded  to  Epidaurus,3  on  the  Gulf  of  Argolis,  and  took 
up  his  abode  in  the  temple  of  ZEsculapius,  about  forty 
stadia  from  the  city.  This  city  was  a  colony  from 
Epidaurus,  on  the  Saronic  Gulf,  called  the  holy,  ^  ispa 
5E7ci£aopo<;,  a  kingdom  founded  by  Pelops.  The  great 
public  edifices  of  the  city  were  a  theater  of  Polycletus, 
a  temple  to  Dionysius  and  Artemis,  and  a  shrine  to 

1  Apollonius  de  Tyane ,  sa  Vie ,  ses  2  Berwick ,  228. 

Voyages,  ses  Prodiges,  par  Chassang,  3  Mythology  and  Fables  (Banier), 

p.  176.  iii.  p.  155. 


144 


APOLLONIUS 


Aphrodite.  The  most  illustrious  deeds  of  Aesculapius 
were  performed  at  Epidaurus.  He  cured  all  manner 
of  diseases,  and  even  raised  the  dead ;  and  Apollonius 
says  a  long  list  of  the  names  of  those  who  had  been 
miraculously  cured  by  this  god  was  engraven  within 
the  temple.  Divine  honors  were  paid  Aesculapius,  and 
the  eighth  day  of  the  Eleusinian  mysteries  was  called 
Epidauria  in  honor  of  him.  The  temple  had,  two  hun¬ 
dred  years  before  this  time,  been  desecrated  by  the 
Romans,  and  the  statue  of  the  healing  god  removed  to 
Rome  and  set  up  on  the  Insula  Tiberina.  On  leaving 
Epidaurus,  he  pressed  forward  to  Malea,  spending  one 
night  at  Bcea.  There  being  many  vessels  stationed  at 
Malea,  he  sailed  immediately,  all  his  disciples  accom¬ 
panying  him.  A  south-easterly  gale  coming  on  soon 
after  leaving  port,  they  were  driven  behind  the  island 
Cythera,  and  sought  shelter  in  the  little  harbor  of  the 
town  of  Acmea.  The  wind,  however,  suddenly  changing 
in  the  opposite  direction,  they  ran  down  upon  the  island 
of  Crete.  The  snowy  summits  of  the  Cretan  Ida  being 
in  sight  during  the  whole  voyage,  and  sailing  along  the 
coast  of  Cydonia  for  two  days  with  head  winds,  they 
finally  put  in  at  Gnossus,  the  birthplace  of  Chersiphon, 
the  architect  of  the  temple  of  Diana  of  Ephesus.  Here 
Apollonius  sought  out  the  residence  of  his  friend  Atne- 
sidemus,  the  stoic,  who  embraced  him  and  hospitably 
entertained  him  while  at  Gnossus.  The  disciples  in  the 
mean  time  visited  the  famous  labyrinth,1  said  to  have 
been  the  dwelling-place  of  the  fabled  Minotaur,  who 
devoured  seven  Athenian  youths  and  seven  Athenian 

1  A  winding  cavern,  artificial,  and  common  in  countries  occupied  by 
the  Ethiopian  race,  used  as  temples  where  human  victims  were  sacrificed. 


OF  7' YANA. 


145 


maidens  furnished  every  seven  years  by  Athens.1  This 
monster  was  the  product  of  a  commerce  of  Pasiphae, 
wife  of  Minos,  king  of  Crete,  with  a  bull ;  and  King 
Minos,  to  conceal  his  disgrace,  had  the  labyrinth  built 
as  a  dwelling-place  of  Minotaur,2  who  was  finally  slain 
by  Theseus.  The  disciples  ascended  Mount  Ida  and 
examined  all  the  sacred  monuments  of  the  island ;  this 
was  the  birthplace  of  Jupiter,3  and  here  he  was  nursed, 
whence  came  the  worship  of  Cybele  and  the  priests 
called  curetes  (Idsei  Dactyli).4  It  was  on  this  sacred 
mount  that  Minos  received  the  Cretan  laws  engraved 
on  tables  of  stone,  delivered  to  him  by  Zeus  long 
ere  the  laws  from  Elohim  Jehovah  were  delivered  to 
Moses.5  Apollonius  visited  the  temple  of  Libene, 
dedicated  to  ^Esculapius,  and  the  most  famous  in  Crete.6 
It  looked  toward  the  Lybian  Sea,  standing  near  Phaes- 
tus,  a  town  where  a  great  sea  is  restrained  by  a  very 
little  rock.  This  temple  is  called  Libenean,  from  a 
promontory  of  the  same  name  resembling  a  lion.  The  , 
story  about  it  is,  that  the  promontory  was  one  of  the 
lions  yoked  of  old  to  the  chariot  of  Rhea7  (Tsia,  Tsa, 
called  by  the  Romans  Aps  Cybele,  mother  of  Uranus). 

It  was  during  the  sojourn  of  Apollonius  on  the  island 


1  This  famous  labyrinth  is  repre¬ 
sented  on  the  reverse  of  a  medal 
of  Gnossus. —  Coins  of  the  United 
States  Mint,  Du  Bois.  There  were 
coins  of  Crete  marked  with  a  square 
or  labyrinth  to  denote  the  celestial 
Venus . — Encyclopcedia  Britannica, 
art.  Crete. 

2  Symbolical  Language  of  Ancient 
Art  (R.  Payne  Knight),  p.  64,  etc. 

3  Jupiter  was  worshiped  in  Crete 

19 


as  Dies.  Peter  (R.  P.  Knight), 
p.  70. 

4  The  History  and  Antiquities  of 
the  Doric  Race  (C.  O.  Muller),  vol. 
ii.  p.  406,  et  seq. 

5  Mu)taY]i;  was  the  Muse  of  Wis¬ 
dom  with  the  Cretans. 

6  History  of  Classical  Greek  Lit¬ 
erature  (Mahaffy),  p.  50. 

7  Mother  of  Osiris,  Isis,  and 
Typhon  ;  wife  of  Pan. 


146 


APOLLONIUS 


of  Crete  that  the  cities  of  the  Campania,  Herculaneum 
and  Pompeii,  were  partially  destroyed  by  the  eruption 
of  Vesuvius,  A.  D.  64.1  The  shock  took  place  about 
midday,  while  Apollonius  was  talking  to  a  great  con¬ 
course  of  people  on  the  subject  of  religion  and  the 
gods  ;  the  violent  concussion  shook  the  whole  island, 
followed  by  a  rumbling  noise  from  the  ground  ;  the 
sea  withdrew  about  seven  stadia  from  the  shore,  and 
many  supposed  that  its  recession  would  sweep  the 
temple  and  all  belonging  to  it  away.  Apollonius,  how¬ 
ever,  calmed  their  fears,  and  no  harm  came  out  of  it.2 
After  he  had  visited  all  of  their  temples  and  completed 
his  mission  in  Crete,  he  turned  his  face  longingly 
toward  Rome,  and,  finding  a  number  of  vessels  at 
Gnossus  ready  to  sail,  he  took  leave  of  his  friend  JEne- 
sidemus,  who  had  affectionately  warned  him  of  the 
hazard  of  a  philosopher  visiting  Rome  at  the  present 
time,  and  set  sail  immediately  for  Puteoli,  the  port  of 
Cumse,  in  Campania.  Puteoli  was  originally  a  colony 
from  Samos,  and  was  first  called  Discearliae,  place  of 
commercial  tumult.  It  was  the  great  emporium  of  Italy; 
its  mole  or  breakwater  was  a  wonderful  structure  built 
upon  a  stone  foundation  thirty  feet  below  tide-water,  and 
protected  a  harbor  large  enough  to  hold  an  imperial  navy. 
“  The  great  merchant-ships  come  sluggishly  into  port 
deeply  laden,  but  go  nimbly  away  empty,  Alexandria 
being  their  home.” 3  This  was  in  the  same  year,  but  prior 

1  Pliny  and  Apollonius  are  the  Naples.  He  had  just  left  the  build- 
only  persons  who  have  referred  to  ing  when  it  fell. — Dyer’s  Ruins  of 
this  great  eruption.  I  think  I  am  Pompeii ,  p.  4. 

not  mistaken.  3  A  New  System  ;  or ,  an  Analysis 

2  At  the  time  of  this  earthquake  of  An  tient  Mythology,  etc.,  by  Jacob 
Nero  was  singing  in  a  theater  at  Bryant, Esq.,  in  6  vols.,vol.  v.  p.  347. 


OF  TYANA. 


14  7 


to  the  great  fire  in  Rome  under  Nero.  “Without  men¬ 
tioning,”  says  Philostratus,  “  the  many  great  and  good 
men  who  incurred  royal  displeasure,  chiefly  in  conse¬ 
quence  of  their  unbending  adherence  to  virtue  and 
truth,  we  cannot  pass  unnoticed  Musonius,1  a  Babylo¬ 
nian  or  a  Chaldean,  and  of  whom  Tacitus  speaks  as  a 
man  devoted  to  the  study  of  philosophy,  and  in  par¬ 
ticular  to  the  doctrines  of  the  stoic  sect,2  who  was  con¬ 
sidered  second  in  wisdom  and  austere  morality  to 
Apollonius,  and  who  was  cast  into  prison,  where  he 
would  have  died  had  he  not  possessed  a  robust  consti¬ 
tution  and  body.  It  was  whilst  philosophy  and  its 
professors  were  in  such  perilous  circumstances  that 
Apollonius  came  to  Rome,  during  the  year  that  Nero 
made  his  debut  upon  the  stage  at  Rome  and  Naples 
(Neapolis). 

On  arriving  at  Puteoli,  Apollonius  repaired  at  once 
to  the  temple  of  Neptune,  and  sacrificed  to  that  god 
for  his  safety  from  perils  of  the  sea ;  he  then  visited 
the  temple  of  Diana,3  with  its  statue  of  that  goddess 
thirteen  cubits  high,  the  fame  of  which  had  reached 
him  years  before.  He  also  visited  the  temple  of 
Jupiter  Serapis,  famous  throughout  the  world.  Puteoli 
was  an  unrivaled  sea-port  and  watering-place  of  Ro¬ 
man  imperialism,  and  the  place  where  every  known 
vice  was  practiced  to  perfection ;  in  front  of  the  city 

1  Musonius  Rufus,  a  stoic  philos-  sonal  friend  of  Apollonius.  He 
opher,  born  in  Etruria,  banished  by  knew  not  the  Christians. — Cf.  Wyt- 
Nero,  returned  under  Vespasian,  tenbachii  de  Musonio  Rufus ,  phil. 
and  was  excepted  from  the  sentence  Stoic  (Amstel,  1783),  4to. 
of  exile  pronounced  against  all  2  Qtdntilian,  b.  x.  124.  Stoics, 
stoics.  He  was  highly  esteemed  3  Symbolical  Language  of  An- 
by  Pliny,  Tacitus,  and  was  the  per-  cient  Art,  etc.  (Knight),  p.  99. 


148 


APOLLONIUS 


lay  the  beautiful  Bay  of  Baiae,  more  remotely  called 
Neapolis,  still  bearing  the  defacement  of  Caligula’s 
great  folly,  the  Bridge  of  Baiae,  now,  however,  in  ruins,1 
a  short  distance  beyond  the  freshly  burned  cities  of 
Herculaneum  and  Pompeii,  still  smoking  in  their  ruins; 
the  island  of  Capreae,  scarcely  visible  to  the  south, 
still  retaining  the  memories  of  the  beastly  Tiberius.2 
Horace,  Virgil,  and  Cicero  have  frequented  and  glori¬ 
fied  this  place,  lavishly  ornamented  with  temples  and 
pillars  and  statues  and  imperial  villas.  Hadrian, 
Agrippa,  Caesar,  Augustus,  and  Tiberius  had  their  villas 
here  ;  it  was  now  the  darling  retreat  of  Nero,  and  it 
was  here  that  he  held  some  of  his  most  voluptuous 
orgies,  and  planned  some  of  his  choicest  crimes  —  as 
the  murder  of  his  mother.  “  The  various  failures  he 
had  before  made  in  this  delicate  business,”  as  Apollo¬ 
nius  said  at  the  time,  only  confirm  the  truth  of  the 
old  adage:  “  If  you  want  a  thing  done,  do  it  yourself.” 


1  This  great  and  useless  work  ex¬ 
tended  across  the  bay  from  Baiae  to 
Puteoli,  a  distance  of  over  three 
miles  and  a  half.  It  was  constructed 
of  a  continuous  line  of  great  vessels, 
placed  side  by  side  and  anchored, 
and  a  broad  road  formed  over  them. 
On  the  sides  of  the  road  were  erected 
inns,  supplied  with  water  by  con¬ 
duits  ;  trees  and  shrubs  were 
planted.  It  was  lighted  by  an  in¬ 
genious  method.  The  opening  of 
this  grand  and  useless  work  was 
conducted  in  a  style  of  magnificence 
before  unequaled.  The  infantry  and 
cavalry  were  marched  over  it,  with 
Caligula  at  their  head.  Speeches 
and  feasting  followed  through  the 


three  following  days. —  The  Picto¬ 
rial  History  of  Rome ,  by  Arnold, 
Onley,  and  others,  p.  467. 

2  Suetonius ,  c.  xlii.  p.  218. 

The  noble  and  interesting  temple, 
Jupiter  Serapis,  for  the  possession 
of  which  earth  and  sea  have  been 
contending  through  many  centuries, 
was  located  at  Pozzuoli.  Occasion¬ 
ally  it  has  been  submerged ;  then  an 
earthquake  would  throw  it  up,  or  the 
sea  retire  and  leave  it  on  dry  ground. 
These  oscillations  have  been  going 
on  here  since  the  historic  period. 
It  is  now  high  and  dry;  near  it 
stands  the  temple  of  Neptune,  half 
under  water,  and  the  temple  of  the 
Nymphs  is  entirely  submerged. 


OF  TYANA. 


149 


Apollonius  now  proceeded  toward  Rome  by  the  Ap- 
pian  Way,1  which  had  just  undergone  a  thorough  repair 
by  Nero,  and  it  was  now  one  of  the  grandest  cemeteries 
of  the  world  —  the  exclusive  privilege  and  possession  of 
the  rich.  When  he  had  arrived  within  one  hundred 
and  twenty  stadia  (fourteen  miles)  from  Rome,  near  the 
grove  of  Aricia,  he  was  met  by  Philolaus,  a  Roman, 
now  of  Cytseum,  a  town  on  the  island  of  Crete.  He 
was  a  man  of  great  eloquence,  but  not  constituted  to 
endure  much  hardship  in  times  of  persecution,  although 
he  had  once  smarted  under  the  rod  of  a  merciless 
centurion.  Apollonius  saluted  him,  and  Philolaus  ex¬ 
horted  him  to  give  way  to  the  storm  and  forego  his 
determination  of  visiting  Rome,  where  philosophy  at 
the  present  time  was  so  much  restricted,  assuring  him 
that  if  he  continued  his  journey  he  would  certainly  be 
arrested  at  the  city  gates,  and  would  probably  lose  his 
life  for  his  imprudence,  which  surely  would  be  no  great 
gain.  It  will  cost  you  more  than  it  did  Ulysses  when 
he  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Cyclops.  Remember  the 
words  of  Alcibiades  when  about  to  be  tried  by  his 
countrymen  on  a  capital  charge :  “  It  is  foolish  to 
spend  so  much  money  and  time  in  trying  to  get  off 
when  it  is  so  easy  to  get  away” — and  he  acted  accord¬ 
ingly;  but  Apollonius  was  inflexible.  Among  his  fol¬ 
lowers,  consisting  of  thirty  disciples,  on  hearing  this 
intelligence  all  except  eight  deserted  him.2  “Very 
well,”  said  Apollonius,  “  every  man  to  his  humor,” 
and  for  which  he  thanked  the  gods,  but  uttered  no 
word  of  censure  upon  those  who  turned  back.  Among 

1  Life  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans  (Guhl  and  Koner),  p.  341. 

2  Brucker,  vol.  ii.  p.  120. 


APOLLONIUS 


150 

those  who  persevered  were  Menippus,  Dioscorides  the 
Egyptian,  Damis,  and  five  others,  whom  Apollonius 
addressed  as  follows :  “  I  do  not  blame  those  who  have 
left  me,  but  I  praise  those  who  have  remained ;  those 
who  have  fled  through  fear  of  Nero  I  do  not  call  cow¬ 
ards,  but  those  who  have  conquered  their  fears  are 
philosophers.  We  go  to  the  city  which  commands  the 
habitable  earth,  but  tyranny  is  enthroned  within  it. 
Let  no  one  deem  it  foolish  in  us  in  our  attempt  to  visit 
this  city,  which,  as  members  of  this  great  despotism, 
whether  by  our  own  selection  or  by  force,  is  not  only 
our  privilege  but  our  right,  and  from  which  so  many 
philosophers  have  fled  ;  there  is  no  terror  to  men  who 
have  made  temperance,  wisdom,  and  truth  the  maxims 
and  rules  of  their  lives.  We  will  go  to  Rome,  and 
Nero’s  edict  banishing  philosophers  we  will  oppose  by 
the  iambic  of  Sophocles.  Such  orders  were  never 
given  by  the  fathers  of  the  gods,  and,  I  will  add,  nor 
by  Apollo,  the  god  of  wisdom.” 

Six  stadia  from  Aricia  they  passed  through  the 
ancient  city  of  Albano,  founded  by  ^Eneas ;  and  on 
their  right,  near  the  city  of  Rome,  on  the  ground  that 
formerly  belonged  to  Pompey,  Apollonius  halted  to 
examine  a  large  tomb  erected  to  Ascanius  and  Pompey. 
They  approached  the  city  late  in  the  day,  and  entered 
by  the  gate  of  Appia1  without  being  questioned, 
although  the  guards  made  some  uncomplimentary 
remarks  about  their  dress ;  they  took  up  their  abode 

1  This  gate  was  substituted  for  stone  by  the  censor  Appius  Clau- 
the  porta  Caperia  when  the  city  was  dius,  in  the  year  442  of  Rome,  and 
enlarged ;  it  derived  its  appella-  was  the  most  magnificent  road  of 
tion  from  the  Appian  Way,  which  all  those  opened  by  the  Romans. — 
was  paved  with  large  blocks  of  Old  Rome ,  etc.  (Burn),  p.  194. 


OF  TYANA. 


151 

at  an  inn  near  the  ancient  city’s  walls,  and  adjacent  to 
Cicero’s  house,1  one  of  the  finest  in  Rome.  It  was 
filled  with  books,  paintings,  and  statues  of  the  greatest 
artists.  Damis  says  Rome  was  owned  by  wealthy  and 
selfish  capitalists  who  thought  of  nothing  but  them¬ 
selves.  The  streets  on  the  elevations  were  filled  with 
houses  nearly  equal  to  Cicero’s.  Croesus  was  said  to 
have  owned  half  of  the  city.  Greek  was  spoken  in 
Rome;  it  was  an  accomplishment  of  which  they  were 
proud  ;  every  noble  Roman  had  a  Greek  preceptor  in 
his  house,2  and  Rome  was  a  Greek  city  to  the  extent 
of  its  culture  and  art.  All  the  statues  of  heroes  and 
gods  which  decorated  the  squares,  porticoes,  and  pri¬ 
vate  mansions  of  the  nobility  were  Greek,  and  cap¬ 
tives  in  Italy.  Rome  had  stolen  a  million  statues  from 
Greece.  They  envied  the  Greek  his  culture ;  the 
Greek  despised  Roman  vulgarity.  Day  after  day 
Apollonius  and  his  friends  spent  their  time  in  visiting 
the  different  parts  of  the  city,  which  was  now  divided 
into  fourteen  regions,  and  the  regions  were  subdivided 
into  vici ;  and  in  regard  to  its  architecture,  Apollonius 
declares  that,  “  There  is  not  a  structure  nor  a  statue 
in  all  Rome  but  that  had  a  Greek  origin.”3  He,  how¬ 
ever,  compliments  their  methods  of  furnishing  pro¬ 
visions  to  the  people  ;  butchers,  bakers,4  and  millers 
were  selected  citizens,  incorporated,  and  were  held  ame¬ 
nable  to  the  severest  laws  in  their  business ;  slaughter- 

1  Cicero’s  house  was  on  the  upper  3  History  of  Greek  Sculpture,  etc. 
slope  of  what  is  now  known  as  the  (Murray),  p.  131,  etc. 

Mons  Esquilinus ;  the  inn  was  in  4  The  Romans  learned  to  make 
the  valley  below  it.  leavened  bread  from  the  Greeks. — 

2  Life  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans  Pliny.  See  Archceologia  Grceca,  etc. 

(Guhl  and  Koner),  p.  89.  (Potter),  vol.  ii.  pp.  352,  361. 


152 


APOLLONIUS 


houses  were  built  of  marble,  and  Nero  had  just  com¬ 
pleted  a  meat  market  equal  in  size  to  the  amphithe¬ 
ater.  Apollonius  was  a  frequent  visitor  at  the  Septa,1 
on  the  Capitoline,  and  the  Colonnades  of  Hadrian. 
Two  celebrated  Greek  groups  adorned  the  Septa,  Pan 
and  Young  Olympus,  and  Chiron  and  Achilles.2 

They  endeavored  to  make  themselves  as  little  ob¬ 
served  as  possible,  preferring  rather  to  obtain  correct 
information  concerning  the  ancient  institutions  of  Rome, 
which  they  had  heretofore  known  only  by  tradition, 
and  to  take  into  account  the  present  corruptions  and 
criminalities  of  Nero  and  his  counselors,  than  openly 
declaring  against  the  abominations  of  a  tyrant,  who 
possessed  all  but  omnipotent  power.3  In  furtherance  of 
this  object,  Apollonius  had  delayed  his  visits  to  the 
temples  and  sacred  places  of  the  city,  and  had  attended 
the  Circus  Maximus,  and  spent  much  time  at  the  Forum. 
The  Circus  Maximus  was  at  the  terminus  of  the  Ap- 
pian  Way,  and  below  the  Palatine  on  the  left,  and  near 
to  his  lodgings ;  to  it  the  Roman  people  paid  a  mad 
devotion, — here  they  sacrificed  their  lives,  here  they 
spent  all  their  earnings  in  drink  and  gambling,  here 
they  verily  dwelt  and  here  they  worshiped.  Clustered 
about  the  entrance  of  the  Circus  were  some  of  the 


1  Life  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans 
(Guhl  and  Koner),  p.  414. 

2  The  Septa  was  once  simply  an 
inclosed  place  on  the  Campus  Mar- 
tius,  divided  off  into  a  number  of 
partitions,  where  the  presidents 
passed  and  received  the  votes  of  the 
centuries.  It  had  now  become  the 

great  resort  and  mart  of  the  slave 


vender,  and  of  idlers  and  loungers  ; 
it  was  also  a  market  for  many  kinds 
of  goods,  and  in  the  evenings  the 
lewd  women  promenaded  here.  It 
stood  just  east  of  the  temple  of  Isis, 
Serapis,  and  Minerva  Chalcidica,  in 
the  ninth  region. —  Old  Rome ,  etc. 
(Robert  Burn),  p.  127. 

3  Suetonius’s  Nero,  xviii. 


OF  TV  AN  A. 


153 


lowest  drinking  and  gambling  dens  in  Rome.  On  the 
day  of  the  races,  before  sunrise,  they  ran  headlong  to 
the  Circus,  and  some  even  passed  sleepless  nights  to 
be  in  readiness  in  the  morning.  The  number  of  idle 
persons  in  the  streets  of  Rome  during  the  season  of 
the  races,  Apollonius  says,  is  enormous.1 

On  the  other  side  of  the  Palatine  was  the  Roman 
Forum,  which  was  exceedingly  rich  in  Greek  art;  here 
were  statues  of  Alcibiades,  Pythagoras,  and  before  the 
Rostra  the  three  Sibyls;  also  a  picture  by  Serapion, 
some  works  of  art  from  Sparta,  and  many  others.  To 
reach  the  Forum  they  had  to  descend  by  the  Via 
Sacra,  the  great  thoroughfare  of  the  nobility ;  all  the 
other  streets  leading  to  it  were  narrow,  and  so  thronged 
with  people  during  the  business  hours  as  to  be  nearly 
or  quite  impassable.  The  Forum  was  the  great  com¬ 
mercial  center  of  the  city  ;  here  all  stock  and  corn  ex¬ 
change  and  all  legal  business  were  transacted,  and  it  was 
also  the  place  to  gather  the  news  of  the  day.  The  fashion¬ 
able  pedestrians,  promenaders,  and  loungers  sought  the 
Via  Sacra,  or  the  retired  porticoes  of  the  Circus  Fla- 
minius.  After  dark  the  Via  Sacra  was  entirely  monopo¬ 
lized  by  the  lewd  women  of  the  city  and  their  satellites. 
In  the  most  circumspect  manner  Apollonius  and  his 
followers  passed  their  time  for  several  months,  visiting 
every  quarter  of  the  city  and  noting  everything  worthy 
of  observation,  without  apparently  attracting  any  undue 
attention,  when  one  evening  their  quarter  of  the  city 


1  Pliny  says  the  Circus  Maximus  lius  Victor  estimates  its  capacity 
was  capable  of  containing  two  hun-  at  three  hundred  and  eighty-five 
dred  and  sixty  thousand  persons,  thousand. — The  Life  of  the  Greeks 
which  Sextus  Rufus  confirms;  Pub-  and  Romans,  etc.,  p.  423. 

20 


154 


APOLLONIUS 


was  visited  by  a  man  pretending  to  be  intoxicated  ;  he 
sang  verses  of  Nero,  for  which  he  received  a  salary  ;  he 
was  a  spy,  the  Ate  of  the  savage  Nemesis,1  and  had 
power  to  arraign  all  persons  who  listened  with  inatten¬ 
tion  or  who  did  not  pay ;  finding  that  little  or  no 
attention  was  paid  him  by  Apollonius  and  his  com¬ 
panions,  he  cried  out  that  they  had  violated  the  majesty 
of  Nero,  and  were  the  enemies  of  his  divine  voice;  at 
which  the  philosophers  did  not  seem  much  concerned. 
Whereupon  Menippus  asked  Apollonius  his  opinion  of 
what  the  performer  said.  “  The  same,”  replied  Apollo¬ 
nius,  “as  of  what  he  sang.”  “But  it  is  not  our  busi¬ 
ness,”  said  Menippus,  “to  show  him  any  signs  of 
disapprobation ;  let  us  pay  him  for  his  music,  and  leave 
him  to  sacrifice  to  the  Muses  of  Nero.2  To  this  Apollo¬ 
nius  assented.  The  next  day,  however,  Apollonius  was 
sent  for  by  Telesinus,  one  of  the  consuls,  and  in  the 
private  interview  Telesinus  was  amazed  at  his  religious 
zeal  and  his  boldness  in  answer  to  questions  put  to 
him ;  and  being  desirous  of  showing  him  respect  of¬ 
fered  to  write  to  the  priests  to  permit  him  to  enter  the 
temples.  “Would  they  not  receive  me,”  said  Apollo¬ 
nius,  “  without  your  written  command  ?  ”  “  No,”  said 

he,  “  for  the  permission  depends  on  my  authority  as 
pontifex  maximus  ”  3  (high-priest  or  pope).  “  I  am 

1  The  savage  goddess  Nemesis  3  The  pontifex  maximus  was  es- 

commissioned  her  ominous  genius  teemed  the  judge  and  arbitrator  of 
Ate  to  fly  incessantly  over  the  whole  all  divine  and  human  affairs,  and  his 
earth,  and  gather  the  thoughtless  authority  was  so  great  and  his  office 
and  important  words  uttered  by  so  much  revered  “  that  all  the  em- 
her  subjects,  which  she  might  pre-  perors,  after  the  example  of  Julius 
sent  as  an  apology  for  torturing  Caesar  and  Augustus,  either  actually 
them.  took  upon  themselves  the  office  or 

2  Apollonius  de  Tyane  (Chassang),  used  the  name.” — Rennet’s  Roman 

p.  1 79-  A  ntiquilies. 


I 


OF  TYANA. 


155 


glad,”  said  Apollonius,  “  that  a  man  so  illustrious  is 
appointed  to  fill  that  office,  but  I  would  prefer  dwelling 
in  temples  which  are  not  so  vigilantly  guarded  ;  none 
of  the  gods  reject  me,  and  all  give  me  the  protection  of 
their  roof;  this  is  all  the  permission  I  crave,  and  with¬ 
out  which  I  care  not  to  enter  the  sacred  precincts ;  and 
this  is  not  denied  me  even  by  the  barbarians.”  “  If 
this  is  so,”  said  Telesinus,  “  the  barbarians  have  been 
beforehand  with  us  in  such  praiseworthy  attention ;  but 
I  would  much  prefer  having  these  good  things  said  of 
ourselves.” 

After  this  Apollonius  took  up  his  abode  in  the 
temples,  and  he  dwelt  in  none  without  making  some 
reformation.  He  visited  no  man,  paid  no  court  to 
royalty,  but  received  all  who  came  unto  him  with  civil¬ 
ity.  In  this  manner  he  passed  from  temple  to  temple. 
These  freedoms  extended  to  him  gave  rise  to  many 
questionings  and  much  bitterness,  until  A.  D.  65,  when 
Demetrius,  a  Greek  cynic  philosopher  of  celebrity,  came 
to  Rome ;  he  was  an  officer  under  the  government  of 
Nero  ;  he  loved  Apollonius,  having  met  him  at  Corinth, 
and  was  secretly  his  disciple.1  He  showed  to  him 
so  much  attention  that  Nero  was  provoked  by  it, 
and  began  to  suspect  that  the  arts  which  Apollonius 
professed  had  great  power  over  Demetrius.  When 
Nero  had  finished  his  gymnasium,  which  was  the  admi¬ 
ration  of  all  Rome,  and  celebrated  the  anniversary  of  it, 
in  the  midst  of  the  senate  and  the  knights  assembled, 
and  performed  all  the  necessary  sacrifices  on  the  occa¬ 
sion,  Demetrius  entered  it,  and  pronounced  an  oration 

1  Demetrius  was  eulogized  by  to  an  island,  was  restored,  but 
Seneca,  who  quoted  his  maxims,  finally  died  in  exile  at  an  advanced 
He  was  banished  by  Vespasian  age. 


156 


APOLLONIUS 


against  all  who  bathed  in  it,1  saying  they  were  effemi¬ 
nate  and  polluters,  not  cleansers  of  themselves  ;  to  which 
he  added  that  the  expense  attending  such  works  was 
idle  and  superfluous.  These  words  would  have  cost 
him  his  life  had  not  Nero  the  night  before  outdone 
himself  in  singing,  and  been  greatly  applauded,  which 
rendered  his  otherwise  ferocious  nature  extremely 
amiable.  The  singing  took  place  in  a  tavern  near  the 
gymnasium  and  Circus  Maximus,  before  an  audience 
of  the  most  abandoned  characters,  men  and  women. 
Nero  had  only  a  girdle  tied  around  his  waist  during  the 
performance ;  in  every  other  respect  he  was  naked. 

From  this  moment  to  the  time  Apollonius  left  Rome 
his  movements  were  watched,  either  for  evidence  to 
convict  of  treasonable  utterances,  or  to  prevent  him  from 
eluding  them  by  the  commission  of  suicide,2  and  thereby 


1  There  was  a  hot  bath  joined  to 
the  gymnasium,  after  the  fashion  of 
the  Greeks,  and  this  appears  from 
Suetonius,  who  says  :  “  Upon  the 
first  opening  of  a  hot  bath  and  a 
school  exercise  gymnasium  which 
Nero  built,  he  furnished  the  senate 
and  the  equestrian  order  with  oil  in 
which  to  bathe.  ” 

2  This  tendency  to  suicide  began 
with  the  cynics,  one  of  whose  most 
noted  disciples,  Diogenes,  causedhis 
death  by  suffocation  (Diogenes 
Laert.,  Life  of  Diogenes,  xi.),  and 
Stilpo,  his  favorite  disciple,  also 
destroyed  himself,  as  did  also  his 
colleagues  Onesicratus,  Metrocles, 
and  Menippus.  Demonax,  a  cynic, 
also  ended  his  life  because  he  had 
outlived  authority.  Peregrinus,  of 
the  same  school,  burnt  himself 
alive. 


The  stoic  heirs  of  the  cynic  school 
were  the  first  to  erect  suicide  into  a 
dogma,  and  create  an  enthusiasm  for 
it.  Many  stoics  committed  suicide 
under  circumstances  which  show 
how  little  regard  they  had  for  life. 
Their  founder,  Zeno,  took  his  own 
life.  His  successor,  Cleanthes, 
showed  an  equal  contempt  for  life. 
Diodorus  cut  his  throat,  Cassius  fell 
by  his  own  dagger,  Pomponius  Atti- 
cus,  Cicero’s  friend,  starved  himself 
to  death.  Nearly  all  of  these  crimes 
were  committed  to  escape  some  real 
or  imaginary  evil,  mostly  the  dread 
of  imperial  vengeance;  many  that 
their  estates  might  be  saved  to  their 
heirs,  a  provision  of  Roman  law. 
—  Cf.  Suicide,  Studies  on  its  Philoso¬ 
phy,  Causes,  and  Prevention,  by 
James  J.  O’Dea,  M.  D.  (New  York, 
1882),  p.  50,  etc. 


OF  TYANA. 


1 57 


saving  his  estate,  which  was  believed  to  be  considerable, 
to  his  legal  representatives ;  for  conviction  of  treason 
was  followed  by  confiscation.  But  he  took  care  to 
indulge  in  no  license  of  speech,  and  yet  not  to  show  too 
much  concern  for  those  who  were  watching  him,  for  he 
knew  that  those  who  professed  philosophy  stood  on 
most  slippery  ground.1  These  things  took  place  about 
the  period  when  Juvenal,2  the  friend  of  Martial,  Quin¬ 
tilian,  and  Pliny  the  younger,  was  thundering  with  his 
eloquence  and  wit  against  the  follies  and  corruptions  of 
his  day.  Perseus  the  stoic,  the  Faust  of  Zeno,  the 
pupil  of  Cornutus,  the  associate  of  Lucan  and  Seneca, 
had  just  died,  aged  twenty- nine  (A.  D.  65).  Italicus, 
the  lawyer  and  pro-consul,  had  crowned  his  career  of 
ease  and  luxury  with  a  philosophical  suicide.  While 
stoicism  was  philosophy  in  the  abstract,  yet  there  were 
many  radical  divergences.  Philosophy  was  the  refuge 
and  consolation  of  the  oppressed,  and  taught  resignation 
and  tacit  submission.  Stoicism  inspired  men  with  indig¬ 
nation  at  their  wrongs,  and  with  burning  zeal  to  redress 
them.  It  made  men  turbulent,  and  meddlers  in  state 
affairs.  Nothing  on  earth  could  reconcile  Seneca, 
Lucan,  or  Apollonius  with  the  imperialism  of  Nero  ;  and 
if  the  rhetorical  diatribes  of  the  elder  Seneca  were  justi¬ 
fiable  manifestoes  of  stoic  invectives  in  the  Flavian  era, 
then  the  Junius  Letter  to  the  Duke  of  Grafton  is  a 
gentle  utterance,  “ suaviter  in  modo  ”  of  party  wrath. 

Lucan  was  born  at  Cordova,  Spain,  A.  D.  38,  edu¬ 
cated  at  Athens,  “  the  Grecian  Hub,”  which  is  about 

1  Edward  Berwick’s  Translation  2  vols.  (Paris,  1862),  vol.  ii.  p. 
of  Philostratus,  p.  239  ;  L' Histoire  68. 

Romaine  (Rome),  par  J.  J.  Am^  2  Volker’s  Juvenal ,  Lebens-und 
piere,  de  l’Acad^mie  Fran5aise,  Characlerbild  (1857). 


158 


APOLLONIUS 


equal  to  an  education  at  the  present  day  at  Cambridge, 
and  implies  that  he  was  a  gentleman  born.  He  was 
the  companion  of  Nero,  the  nephew  of  Seneca,  and  the 
author  of  Pharsalia.  At  twenty-five  he  was  a  prodigy 
of  information,  and  was  making  conquests  over  the 
conceited  Nero  in  literary  contests ;  this  proved  his 
ruin  —  five  years  later  he  was  in  exile,1  and  in  A.  D.  65 
was  put  to  death.  In  the  same  year  it  was  decreed 
that  Seneca  also  must  die.  Both  were  put  to  death  by 
order  of  Nero,  who  had  now  clothed  nearly  every  noble 
family  of  Rome  in  mourning.2 * * 

At  the  death  of  Festus  (a.  D.  63),  Albinus  was 
appointed  procurator  at  Jerusalem;  this  gave  great  dis¬ 
satisfaction  to  the  turbulent  Jews,  and  the  boldness  of 
the  attacks  of  the  assassins  was  becoming  more  and  more 


1  Philostrate  leones  Heroica  et  Vita 
Sophistarum  (Aldus,  1503);  Jacob 
Palmer,  A pologiapro  Lucano  ( 1 704) ; 
Voltaire,  Essai  sur  la  Poesie  e'pique  ; 
J.  G.  Meusel,  Dissertationes  de  Lu¬ 
cano  (1767);  Karl  H.  Weise,  Vita 
Lucani  (1835). 

2 Tacitus,  Annals, b.  xiv.  xv.  Nero, 

with  a  conscious  timidity,  avoided 

the  society  of  the  maligned  philoso¬ 
pher.  To  avert  the  storm  which  he 
saw  was  inevitably  approaching, 

Seneca  offered  to  surrender  his 
wealth  and  withdraw  into  the  shade 
of  private  life.  The  emperor,  sus¬ 
pecting  and  distrusting,  refused  his 
old  tutor’s  resignation,  and  Seneca 
pleaded  delicate  health  and  the  pre¬ 
occupation  of  study;  and  flying 
from  the  scenes  of  his  former  power 
and  popularity,  was  henceforth,  sel¬ 


dom  seen  in  the  city  (a.  d.  62).  A 
fresh  accusation  was  brought  against 
Seneca  in  his  retirement.  He  was 
accused  of  taking  part  in  a  conspir¬ 
acy,  at  the  head  of  which  was  the 
illustrious  Piso.  Seneca  succeeded 
in  effectually  retorting  the  charge 
of  treason  on  his  accuser  Romanus. 
If  the  conspiracy  was  an  imaginary 
one,  it  was  followed  soon  after  by  a 
plot  against  Nero  of  a  really  for¬ 
midable  character. 

Macaulay  has  said  of  Seneca  “  that 
it  was  easy  to  declaim  in  praise  of 
poverty  with  two  million  pounds 
sterling  out  at  usury,  and  to  meditate 
epigrammatic  conceits  about  the  evils 
of  luxury  in  gardens  which  moved 
the  envy  of  kings,  to  rant  about 
liberty  while  fawning  on  the  insolent 
stnd  pampered  freedman  of  a  tyrant. 5  * 


OF  TYANA . 


159 


notorious.  Albinus  used  every  effort  to  put  down 
these  murderous  assaults,  but  without  result ;  for  many 
of  the  most  influential  among  them  —  even  the  high- 
priests —  were  implicated  in  the  disturbances.  One 
Jesus,  son  of  Damneus,  was  removed  from  the  office  of 
high-priest,  and  another  Jesus,  son  of  Gamaliel,  was 
appointed  in  his  place ;  these  two  rival  pontiffs  fought 
and  scrambled  for  the  tithes  until  removed  by  force  of 
Roman  arms.  Albinus  was  not  resolute  enough  for  the 
times  and  the  tumultuous  material  with  which  he  had 
to  deal.  He  was  removed  this  year  (A.  D.  65). 1 

Again  returning  to  Rome,  Apollonius  informs  us  a 
distemper  prevailed  there,  which  the  physicians  called 
catarrh,  and  which  was  attended  with  a  cough  and  a 
great  difficulty  in  breathing.  Nero  had  an  attack  of  this 
distemper  and  a  swelling  in  his  throat,  and  in  conse¬ 
quence  of  this  indisposition  the  temples  were  crowded 
with  votaries  offering  prayers  for  his  recovery.  Apol¬ 
lonius  became  greatly  incensed  at  this  madness  of  the 
people,  and  gave  expression  to  his  contempt.  These 
facts  reached  the  ear  of  Tigellinus,2  the  public  prosecutor 
who  had  supplanted  Seneca  in  the  favor  of  Nero.  He 
sent  immediately  and  had  Apollonius  arrested  under 
charge  of  high  treason.  An  informer,  well  instructed  in 
his  part,  who  had  been  the  ruin  of  many  worthy  citizens 
and  whose  record  was  full  of  such  Olympic  victories, 


1  The  History  of  the  Israelites  and 
Judceajis  (Triibner),  vol.  ii.  p.  319. 

2  This  man,  Tigellinus,  had  been 
recommended  to  Nero  by  his  de¬ 
baucheries.  He  afterward  betrayed 
him,  and  committed  other  acts  of 
perfidy.  He  had  been  formerly  ban¬ 


ished  by  Claudius  for  intrigues  with 
Agrippina.  He  exiled  himself  dur¬ 
ing  the  short  reign  of  Galba,  and  was 
put  to  death  by  Otho,  to  the  great 
joy  of  all  the  people. —  The  Satires 
of  Decimus  (J.  J.  Gifford,  1802), 
p.  30. 


i6o 


APOLLONIUS 


presented  himself  at  the  hearing,  holding  in  his  hand  a 
roll  whereon  was  written  the  accusations,  and  which  he 
flourished  like  a  sword  before  the  eyes  of  Apollonius, 
boasting  that  he  had  given  it  a  sharp  edge,  and  that 
now  his  hour  had  come.  Upon  this,  Tigellinus  un¬ 
folded  the  roll,  when  lo  !  neither  letter  nor  character 
was  to  be  seen.1  This  made  all  think  that  Apollonius 
was  a  demon,  an  opinion  entertained  of  him  afterward 
by  Domitian.  When  Tigellinus  saw  this  he  took  him 
into  a  more  secret  part  of  the  court,  where  the  most 
solemn  business  was  transacted  ;  and,  making  the  people 
withdraw,  asked  him  who  he  was.  Apollonius  told  his 
name,  that  of  his  father,  and  his  country.  Tigellinus 
then  asked :  “  How  do  you  discover  demons  and  the 
apparition  of  specters  ?  ”  “  Just  as  I  do  homicides  and 

impious  men,”  replied  Apollonius;  and  this  he  said  in 
sarcastic  allusion  to  Tigellinus,  who  countenanced  and 


1  Apollonius  de  Tyane ,  sa  Vie,  ses 
Voyages,  ses  Prodiges,  par  Chassang, 
p.  182.  This  was  undoubtedly  the 
work  of  Menippus,  who  was  the 
secret  friend  at  court  of  Apollonius, 
and  who  afterward  avowed  his  doc¬ 
trine,  and  became  a  disciple  and  fol¬ 
lowed  him  in  his  travels.  The 
original  roll  had,  no  doubt,  been 
removed  and  a  blank  one  put  in  its 
place,  and  that  both  Apollonius  and 
Menippus  were  parties  to  this  trick. 

These  things  took  place  about 
the  period  when  Paul,  who  had  ap¬ 
pealed  unto  Caesar  (Nero),  was  in 
Rome,  and  where  he  was  allowed 
to  dwell  in  peace  and  employ  him¬ 
self  for  two  whole  years  in  making 
converts  to  Christianity,  even  in  the 


emperor’s  household  (Phil.  i.  13,  iv. 
22),  and  wrote  letters  to  the  Ephe¬ 
sians,  Colossians,  Philippians,  etc. 
And  still  it  is  recorded  that  the  Chris¬ 
tians  were  persecuted  by  the  pagans. 
We  have  never  seen  the  record,  nor 
have  we  sufficient  data;  in  fact,  all 
data  go  to  disprove  that  there 
were  Christians  in  Caesar’s  house¬ 
hold  or  anywhere  else  in  Rome  at 
this  period.  But  we  do  know, 
from  ample  testimony,  that  Caesar’s 
(Nero’s)  household  was  infested 
with  stoicism.  Would  it  not  be 
strange  if  the  entire  story  of  Paul’s 
Christianity  had  an  origin  in  a  strata 
no  more  reliable  than  the  story  of 
Christ’s  miracles? — Prophet  of  Naz¬ 
areth,  p.  4  7,  et  seq. 


\‘ 


OF  TV  AN  A. 


l6l 

encouraged  Nero  in  all  his  cruelty  and  debauchery. 
Tigellinus  continued :  “  Will  you  prophesy  for  me, 
Apollonius,  if  I  ask  it?”  “How  can  I?”  said  he;  “I 
am  no  soothsayer.”1  “How  comes  it,  then,”  said 
Tigellinus,  “  that  you  do  not  fear  Nero  ?  ”  “  Because,” 

answered  he,  “  the  same  deity  who  has  made  him  for¬ 
midable  has  made  me  bold.”  “And  what  do  you 
think  of  him  ?  ”  “  More  than  you  do,”  said  Apollonius, 

“  for  I  would  not  advise  him  to  sing  and  play  the  lyre, 
as  you  do,  while  he  ought  to  hold  his  tongue.” 
“  Having  such  sentiments,  I  advise  you,”  said  Tigel¬ 
linus,  “  to  keep  beyond  Nero’s  reach  during  his  aberra¬ 
tions.”  “The  very  advice  I  had  intended  for  you,” 
replied  Apollonius,  “if  he  ever  comes  to  his  senses.” 

1  Tigellinus  (to  Nero) : 

Nay,  if  you  seek  for  potent  talismans,  know 
Apollonius  of  Tyana 

Is  now  in  Rome  —  he  whom  some  deem  a  god. 

He  with  his  power  could  set  at  naught  their  arts. 

Nero  : 

Has  he  such  magic  powers  ? 

Tigellinus  : 

He  has,  indeed ; 

Under  your  edict  he  was  lately  brought 
Before  the  Consul  and  myself.  In  sooth, 

Such  was  his  power,  we  deemed  it  best 
To  set  him  free  at  once. 

Nero  : 

Go  to  him,  then, 

As  will  enable  me  to  set  at  naught 
All  these  foul  practices.  Go,  go  at  once. 

Tigellinus  : 

I  shall  obey. 

— Nero:  A  Historical  Play ,  act  iv.  scene  2. 


21 


APOLLONIUS 


162 

Damis  says  that  Tigellinus  behaved  very  much  as  one 
with  a  wolf  by  the  ears — it  was  equally  unsafe  to  let  go 
as  to  hold  on.  After  this  and  much  other  conversation, 
“Go  where  you  please,”  said  Tigellinus,  “only  giving 
security  for  your  appearance  when  required.”  For  all 
these  things  appeared  to  Tigellinus  as  divine,  and  he 
feared  to  contend  with  a  god. 

Apollonius,  having  thus  fortunately  gained  his  lib¬ 
erty  by  an  accident  or  through  the  cowardice  of  Tigel¬ 
linus,  became  more  circumspect  in  his  conduct.  One 
day  as  he  was  passing  along  the  street  in  company 
with  some  of  his  disciples  he  met  a  funeral  procession 
bearing  a  girl  upon  a  bier.  The  girl  had  been  on  the 
point  of  being  married,  and  was  followed  by  her  friends 
and  intended  husband  in  great  affliction,  and  as  she 
was  of  a  consular  family  all  Rome  condoled  with  him. 
Apollonius  approached  the  procession  and  said  to  the 
attendants  and  pall-bearers,  “Set  down  the  bier,  and  I 
will  dry  the  tears  being  shed  for  this  maid.”  The  spec¬ 
tators  thought  he  was  going  to  pronounce  a  funeral 
oration  ;  but  all  he  did  was  to  touch  the  maid,  and,  after 
uttering  a  few  words  over  her  in  a  low  tone  of  voice, 
she  arose  as  if  awakened  from  a  sleep,  but  seemed  to 
be  overcome ;  in  a  few  days,  however,  she  had  entirely 
recovered.1  The  relatives  of  the  girl  sought  out  Apol¬ 
lonius  and  presented  him  with  a  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  drachmas,  which  he  in  return  begged  to  settle 
upon  her  as  a  marriage  portion.  In  all  the  miracles 
of  Apollonius,  real  or  pretended,  this  one  excepted,  he 
seems  to  ignore  and  even  ridicule  the  power  of  per¬ 
forming  wonders ;  in  this  he  has  left  the  full  force  of 

1  Apollonius  de  Tyane ,  par  A.  Chassang,  p.  184. 


OF  TYANA. 


163 


a  miraculous  resurrection  to  rest  upon  his.  power  to 
restore  life,  and  rather  encourages  us  to  believe  that  he 
did  perform  the  feat  through  supernatural  agency.1 

About  this  time  (a.  d.  66)  Cornutus,  a  stoic  and 
teacher,  was  banished  for  telling  Nero  that  nobody 
would  ever  read  his  poetry.  Musonius  Rufus,2  before 
mentioned,  a  friend  of  Apollonius  and  of  Pliny,  Taci¬ 
tus,  and  other  eminent  men,  was  also  arrested  and  cast 
into  prison,  and  was  finally  sent  in  chains  to  work  in 
the  canal  which  was  to  connect  the  Adriatic  with  the 
Aegean  sea  at  Corinth.  Rufus  declared  that  he  would 
rather  work  in  Nero’s  ditch  at  Corinth  than  be  com¬ 
pelled  to  hear  him  sing  at  Rome.  He  had  formerly 
been  a  teacher;  among  his  pupils  was  the  lame 
slave,  afterward  known  as  Epictetus  (meaning  “  ac¬ 
quired”),  the  ablest  of  all  the  expositors  of  stoicism. 
Communication  was  kept  up  between  Apollonius  and 


1  Eusebe  commence  par  faire  re- 
marquer  que  Philostrate  lui-meme 
semble  ne  pas  aj  outer  foi  &  ce  mi¬ 
racle,  et  essaye  tout  le  premier  de 
l’exprimer  d’une  maniere  naturelle ; 
pius  il  ajoute :  “  Si  un  miracle  aussi 
evident  que  celui-la  avait  ete  fait  a 
la  vue  de  Rome  aurait-il  ete  inconnu 
a  l’empereur,  aux  senateurs  et  a 
Euphrate  qui  demeurait  en  ce  temps- 
la  dans  cette  capitale  de  l’empire  et 
qui  accusa  peu  apres  publiquement 
Apollonius  de  magie  ?  Un  fait  de 
cette  importance  aurait  sans  doute 
fourni  la  matiere  au  premier  et  au 
principal  chefd’accusation.  ”  Voici  ce 
que  dit,  en  ce  m£me  endroit,  Eusebe 
au  sujet  de  deux  miracles  rapportes 
plus  haut  dans  le  IVe  livre.  “  II 


n’est  pas  necessaire  d’employer 
beaucoup  de  paroles  pour  montrer 
combien  il  etait  aise  de  faire  deux 
des  miracles  qu’on  attribue  a  Apol¬ 
lonius.  L’un  ne  consiste  qu’a  avoir 
chasse  des  demons  d’un  lieu  en  un 
autre.  On  pretend  qu’il  en  chassa 
un  du  corps  d’un  jeune  homme  fort 
debauche  et  qu’il  en  ecarta  un  autre 
qui  prenait  la  figure  d’une  femme  et 
qui  selon  le  savant  auteur  de  cette 
histoire,  dtait  de  ceux  qu’on  appelle 
empusa .” — Reponse  a  Hierocles ,  c. 
30,  trad,  du  President  Cousin. 

2  See  Neuwland’s  Dissertatio  de 
C.  Musonius  Rufus  (1783);  Tacitus, 
Annals,  books  xiv.  and  xv. ;  cf. 
Eutropius’s  Abridgment  of  Roman 
History. 


164 


APOLLONIUS 


Musonius  Rufus  during  his  imprisonment,1  and  under 
Vespasian,  through  the  influence  of  Apollonius,  he  was 
reinstated. 

During  the  first  century  there  is  but  little  doubt  that 
certain  schools  of  philosophy,  as  stoicism,  were  danger¬ 
ous  elements  in  the  commonwealth, — a  philosophy  which 
the  emperors  could  not  win  by  kindness  or  purchase  by 
favors,  nor  crush  with  persecution.  Its  professors  could 
not  reconcile  the  authority  which  one  man  sustained  by 
force,  by  sword  and  police,  with  their  ideas  of  the  just 
predominancy  of  the  wise.  They  lived  in  an  ideal  Pla¬ 
tonic  republic,  and  cherished  the  memories  of  Cassius 
and  Brutus.  These  political  metaphysicians  could  not 
see  that  a  mild  autocrat  like  Augustus  was  the  only  bar¬ 
rier  between  the  people  and  anarchy  and  bloodshed,  and 
their  mood  was  consequently  one  of  perpetual  censure 
of  the  conduct,  public  and  private,  of  the  Caesars.  They 
would  not  celebrate  his  birthday,  nor  go  in  mourning 
at  his  death ;  they  shunned  his  services,  and  feigned 
indifference  whether  he  smiled  or  frowned.  But  the 
greater  body  of  them,  in  the  later  years  of  Rome,  dur¬ 
ing  the  reign  of  Nero,  knew  enough  to  prudently,  if 
not  consistently,  keep  silent ;  or  not  protest  against  the 
outrages  of  Nero,  unless  safely  beyond  his  reach.2  But 
when  Vespasian  came  into  power,  and  the  mildness  of 
.his  reign  warmed  these  professors  of  wisdom  into  con¬ 
fidence,  they  again  began  to  hiss  and  sting,  and  made 
their  school  resound  with  the  praises  of  Hermodus  and 
Aristogeiton. 

Nero  was  now  setting  out  for  Greece  (A.  D.  66),  and 
just  before  he  departed  he  published  an  edict  expel- 

1  Reign  of  the  Stoics.  2  See  Suetonius ,  c.  xxxvii.  p.  367. 


OF  TYANA. 


165 


ling  the  philosophers  (stoics)  from  Rome.  Of  all  the 
undertakings  of  Nero,  the  one  he  set  himself  most  de¬ 
terminedly  about,  was  to  sweep  from  the  face  of  the 
earth  the  two  sects,  stoics  and  cynics.1 

At  Rome  during  this  early  period  the  learned  com¬ 
posed  a  very  small  class,  philosophy  was  confined  to 
the  salon  and  coteries,  public  education  in  its  modern 
sense  was  unknown,  therefore  literary  men  were  thrown 
into  one  another’s  company,  much  as  they  are  in  iso¬ 
lated  towns  at  the  present  day.  Rome  had  its  Hotels 
de  Rambouillet  and  its  Holland  Houses,  its  public 
readings  and  its  philosophical  lectures ;  beyond  these, 
which  were  extremely  private,  all  was  gross  ignorance.2 
Apollonius,  knowing  that  outspoken  philosophers,  or 
even  those  who  confessed  themselves  as  such,  were 
being  pursued  by  Nero,  and  inasmuch  as  lectures  upon 


1  This  decree,  according  to  Ole- 
arius,  was  made  before  the  month 
of  November,  a.  d.  66,  and  has 
been  used  by  Christian  evidence- 
mongers,  says  Robert  Taylor,  D.D., 
as  a  decree  against  the  Christians ; 
Christian  being  interpolated  where 
the  word  philosopher  occurred,  and 
indeed,  on  pages  21,  22,  and  23  of 
Mosheim’s  Ecclesiastical  History, 
Ancient  and  Modern  (the  Blackie 
and  Son  edition  of  1839),  one  may 
discover  on  inspection  what  slight 
perversion  of  the  text  would  be 
affected  were  the  word  Christian 
stricken  out  and  the  word  philoso¬ 
pher  inserted,  rendering  it  much 
more  in  conformity  with  facts  as  we 
have  them  handed  down  to  us  in 
any  reliable  form.  Christianity,  no 


matter  how,  nevertheless  did  be¬ 
come  the  great  and  implacable  foe 
of  paganism ;  a  foe  which  disdained 
all  compromise,  and  rejected  all 
alliance.  It  claimed  the  right  of 
invasion;  outside  of  its  pale  there 
was  no  security  in  this  life,  and  no 
salvation  in  the  next.  All  were  in¬ 
vited  to  its  communions,  and  those 
who  rejected  the  invitation  were 
brought  in  by  force.  Had  Marcus 
Aurelius  resorted  to  the  same  vil¬ 
lainies  to  establish  stoicism  that 
Constantine  and  Eusebius  did  in  the 
establishment  of  Christianity,  the 
name  even  of  Christianity  would 
not  have  reached  our  day. 

2  The  Life  of  the  Greeks  and  Ro¬ 
mans  (Guhl  and  Kouer),  p.  73, 
etc. 


APOLLONIUS 


1 66 


science  and  literature  were  unattractive  and  unprofitable 
to  the  masses,  resolved  to  travel  into  Spain  and  Africa 
(a.  D.  66) ;  and,  when  pressed  upon  by  his  disciples  for 
his  reasons  in  visiting  these  barbarians,  said  his  great¬ 
est  solicitude  at  present  was  how  to  get  gracefully 
out  of  Rome, —  concerning  which,  since  the  murder  of 
Seneca,  he  felt  very  much  as  Aristotle  did  when'he  left 
Athens,  where  Socrates  had  just  suffered  death, —  that 
he  did  so  lest  the  Athenians  should  commit  two  philo¬ 
sophical  blunders.1 

Nero’s  troops  had  just  been  defeated  at  Jerusalem 
under  Cestus,  and  Vespasian  is  sent  to  retrieve  the 
calamity  (a.  D.  66).  In  the  autumn  of  the  same  year 
Apollonius  reached  Spain.  Damis  has  given  no  par¬ 
ticulars  of  the  journey  to  Spain,2  not  even  the  route, 
except  that  they  left  the  city  of  Rome  by  the  Fla- 
minian  Way  and  Gate,  which  began  at  the  Pantheon  and 
led  to  Florence,  Pisa,  and  Genoa.  None  of  these  places 
are  referred  to  by  Damis,  however.  “  The  people  of 


1  It  has  been  the  reproach  of  the 
lecturers  of  antiquity  that  they  talked 
for  talking’s  sake,  and  amused  their 
hearers  with  inflated  periods  upon 
unprofitable  themes.  The  modern 
lecturer  or  stump  speaker  may  dilate 
upon  politics  or  religion  or  both, — 
two  of  the  most  important  subjects 
which  engage  man’s  attention.  Lit¬ 
erature,  science,  and  the  arts  are  also 
open  for  him, —  in  short,  he  may  dis¬ 
course  de  omnibus  rebits ,  except  per¬ 
haps  on  church  ceremonials,  without 
risking  a  hiss.  But  it  was  not  so  in 
Apollonius’s  time ;  a  lecture  on 
“  State  Creed  ”  would  have  found 


no  hearers;  a  thesis  upon  Nero’s 
conduct  in  banishing  philosophers 
would  have  been  courting  prison  or 
death.  The  tastes  of  Greece  and 
Rome  were  rhetorical ;  to  confuse  an 
opponent,  to  make  the  worse  appear 
the  better  reason,  to  dazzle  with 
words  and  bewilder  with  distinc¬ 
tions, — “  hce  erant  artes,” — were  the 
object  of  the  performers.  Most  lec¬ 
turers  had  their  corps  of  well-drilled 
applauders  ( claqueurs ),  and  Nero 
said  “  nothing  short  of  it  could  even 
star  a  Caesar.” 

2  Apollonius  de  Tyane  (Chassang), 

p.  186. 


OF  TYANA . 


1 67 


this  country  (Spain),”  says  Apollonius,  “are  quite  igno¬ 
rant  of  the  customs  of  enlightened  nations,  and  are 
very  superstitious  about  religion.  They  have  erected 
an  altar  to  old  age ,  and  are  the  only  people  known  who 
sing  hymns  in  honor  of  death.1  Even  art  and  poverty2 
have  altars  with  them.  With  the  inhabitants  about 
Gades  (Gadeira),  however,  it  is  quite  otherwise ;  they 
are  said  to  be  descended  from  the  Greeks,  and  are  in¬ 
structed  in  our  customs,  and  have  a  temple  to  Hercules.”3 
Julius  Caesar  conferred  the  civitas  of  Rome  on  all  the 
citizens  of  Agadir  (Cadiz),  and,  shortly  after,  Cornelius 
Balbus  built  the  new  city  and  harbor  and  constructed 
the  bridge  across  the  strait  (Santi  Petri),  of  which 
Apollonius  speaks  in  terms  of  great  praise.  He 
says  that  Augustus  erected  Gades  into  a  municipium, 
under  the  title  of  Augustus  Urbs  Gaditana,  and  its 
citizens  ranked  next  to  Romans.4  They  honor  the 
Athenians  above  all  the  Greeks,  and  offer  sacrifices  to 
Menestheus,  king  of  Athens ;  and  they  have  raised  a 
statue  of  brass  to  the  memory  of  Themistocles,  who 


1  It  has  been  called  the  kingdom 
of  Pluto,  land  of  darkness  (Tar¬ 
tarus).  Pluto  was  reckoned  king 
of  the  dead.  He  resided  at  Cadiz. 
At  bottom,  however,  I  think  all  this 
can  be  explained  in  the  fact  that  the 
West  was  always  a  region  of  death 
and  darkness.  Erebus  is  synony¬ 
mous  with  darkness.  It  was  the 
gloomy  kingdom  of  Pluto,  over¬ 
spread  with  the  thickest  darkness, 
the  common  mansion  of  the  dead. 
Homer  characterizes  the  Atlantic 
Ocean  “  The  gloomy  mansions  of 
the  Titans.” 


2  Poverty,  Penia  (lima),  a  god¬ 
dess  whom  Aristophanes  describes 
in  his  play  of  “  Phitus,”  was  held 
in  high  veneration  by  the  people  of 
Spain  from  an  idea  that  she  was  the 
inventress  of  arts,  by  her  power  of 
quickening  the  industry  and  calling 
forth  the  genius  of  men. 

3  Apollonius  de  Tyane  (Chassang), 
190;  Vie  d' Apollonius  ('D’Aussy), 
vol.  ii.  p.  80. 

4  Some  remains  of  the  ancient 
city  and  the  bridge  and  the  temple 
of  Hercules,  it  is  said,  are  still  visi¬ 
ble  under  the  sea. 


168 


APOLLONIUS 


commanded  the  Athenian  fleet.  In  the  temple  of  Her¬ 
cules  at  Gades 1  were  two  pillars  composed  of  gold  and 
silver  so  nicely  blended  as  to  form  but  one  color.  They 
were  more  than  a  cubit  high,  of  quadrangular  form, 
like  anvils,  and  were  inscribed  with  characters  neither 
Greek,  Egyptian,  nor  Indian,  and  they  could  not  be 
deciphered,  nor  could  the  priests  of  the  temple  give 
any  explanation  of  them.  Apollonius  said :  “  The 
Egyptian  Hercules  will  no  longer  suffer  me  to  remain 
silent.  The  pillars  are  the  chains  which  bind  together 
the  earth  and  sea ;  the  inscriptions  on  them  were  exe¬ 
cuted  by  Hercules  in  the  house  of  the  Parcse  to 
prevent  discord  arising  among  the  elements,  or  an 
interruption  of  that  friendship  which  they  entertain  for 
each  other.2  As  to  the  pillars,  called  the  pillars  of 
Hercules,  which  are  said  to  be  the  western  bounds  of 
the  earth,  I  shall  pass  over,”  said  Apollonius,  “as 
entirely  fabulous,  and  devote  myself  to  such  things  as 
are  worthy  to  be  related.”  3  This  MsvsaQsoc,  to  whom 
the  Gadeans  sacrificed,  was  a  semi-fabulous  king  of 
Athens,  who  obtained  the  throne  in  the  absence  of 
Theseus,  who  was  the  lawful  monarch  and  who  com¬ 
manded  the  Athenians  in  the  Trojan  war.4 


1  Jowett’s  Plato ,  Crit. ,  114. 

2  Apollonius de  Tyane  (Chassang), 
p.  192,  etc. 

3  We  are  not  quite  satisfied  to 
dismiss  the  pillars  of  Hercules  as 
summarily  as  Apollonius  has  done. 

Homer,  speaking  of  Calypso,  a 
daughter  of  Atlas,  one  of  the  Titans, 
who  were  great  navigators  and  knew 
all  the  soundings  of  the  deep,  says  : 
“  They  had  also  long  pillars  or  obe¬ 


lisks,  which  referred  to  the  sea,  and 
upon  which  was  delineated  the  whole 
system  of  both  heaven  and  earth 
(ajacp  t^),  all  around,  both  in  front  of 
the  obelisk  and  on  the  other  sides ; 
and  Bryant  thinks  they  were  similar 
to  the  columns  of  Alexandria. 

4  Philostratus  de  Vita  Apollonii 
Tyanei  Scriptor  Luculentus  a  Phil- 
ippo  Beroaldo  Castigatus  (1502), 
pp.  99,  etc. 


OF  TYANA. 


169 


Apollonius  studied  the  phenomenon  of  the  ebbing 
and  flowing  of  the  tides  of  the  ocean,1  and  the  cause 
thereof,  but  he  does  not  inform  us  whether  or  not  he 
discovered  their  true  cause,2  nor  is  it  related  of  him,  as 
of  Aristotle,  who,  on  his  failing  to  make  a  similar  dis¬ 
covery,  in  his  despair  uttered  this  prayer,  “O  thing 
of  things,  have  mercy  upon  us.”  3  Apollonius  explored 
the  river  Boetus,  and  found  that  the  nature  of  the  river 
contributed  much  toward  an  explanation  of  the  rise  and 
fall  of  the  sea.4  While  at  Gades  he  related  to  his  disci¬ 
ples  the  tradition  of  the  Fortunate  Islands,  and  dis¬ 
coursed  on  subjects  concerning  the  Titans  and  gods  of 
the  seas,  oceans,  and  rivers, —  maintaining  that  water, 
moisture,  humidity  was  first  of  all  created,  and  princi¬ 
pal  of  all  things,  and  of  the  adoration  paid  to  it  by  the 
ancients,  and  which  was  propagated  into  Greece  by 
Thales.5  He  also  discoursed  upon  subjects  concerning 


1  This  was  probably  at  Gibraltar, 
which  is  forty-five  miles  from  Cadiz. 
Olearius  supposes  it  was  at  Mas- 
silia,  now  Marseilles,  where  the 
ebbing  and  flowing  was  observed 
by  Apollonius. 

2  Reville’s  Pagan  Christ ,  p.  31. 

3  Cf.  M.  Costard’s  History  of  As¬ 
tronomy,  p.  256;  Diodorus  Siculus, 
p.  172;  Strabo,  lib.  iii.  p.  148. 

4  Seaman's  Delight,  containing  the 
Flux  and  Reflux  of  the  Sea,  the 
Closet  of  Magnelical  Miracles  Un¬ 
locked,  p.  30  (1686). 

5  See  The  Mythology  and  Fables 
of  the  Ancients,  explained  from 
History,  by  Abbe  Banier,  4  vols. 
(London),  vol.  ii.  p.  470. 

How  the  doctrine  that  all  things 


originated  in  water  can  be  recon¬ 
ciled  by  Apollonius  with  his  profes¬ 
sions  of  Pythagorism  is  a  little 
difficult  for  us  to  comprehend.  The 
Pythagoreans,  the  Persians,  and  the 
Chinese  considered  fire  the  first 
principle  of  life  in  the  world. — La 
Chine  (Panthier),  i.  116,  ii.  354. 
The  ancient  Chinese  (b.  C.  550) 
thought  that  the  Taike  (the  first 
principle)  is  made  up  of  both  mind 
and  matter.  Lao  Tseu  recognized 
the  igneous  principle  of  life  and 
the  luminous  principle  of  intelli¬ 
gence,  and  that  they  can  no  more 
be  separated  “  than  fire  from  the 
burning  substance.” — Vestiges  of 
Spirit-History  of  Man  (Dunlap), 
p.  150. 


22 


APOLLONIUS 


1 70 


the  country  Lusitania  (Boetica),  but  Damis  says  that 
here  as  elsewhere  he  preserved  only  the  conversations 
which  he  deemed  most  worthy  of  preservation.  It  is 
not  to  the  reproach  of  Apollonius  that  he  discoursed 
sometimes  upon  unprofitable  subjects.  One  day  he 
and  his  disciples,  who  constituted  an  order  of  pagan 
monks,  were  sitting  in  the  temple  of  Hercules,  and  he 
discoursing  to  them  of  the  various  kinds  of  immortality 
sought  after  by  its  various  votaries,  and  referring  to  the 
immortality  of  the  hero  (military  glory),  as  of  Alex¬ 
ander  and  Xerxes ;  the  immortal  fame  of  the  philoso¬ 
pher,  as  Pythagoras,1  Thales,  and  Plato ;  and  the 
immortal  folly  of  Sardanapalus,  who  is  said  to  have 
cast  himself  into  the  crater  of  ALtna,  first  announcing 
that  he  was  a  god ;  and,  again,  the  immortality  of 
infamy  which  would  certainly  attach  to  Nero.  Menip- 
pus  2  smiled  on  the  mention  of  Nero,  and  said,  “What 
shall  we  think,  my  friends,  of  that  good  emperor  ? 
Are  there  any  contests  in  which  we  can  give  him  the 
merit  of  winning  a  crown  ?  Do  not  you  think  that  the 
Greeks  must  nearly  die  of  laughter  when  they  see  him 
enter  the  lists  ?  ”  To  this  Apollonius  said,  “  I  have 
heard  from  Telesinus  that  the  excellent  Nero  fears 


being  flogged  by  the  Eleans,  with  whom  he  is  to  con¬ 
tend  in  the  arena.”3  When  his  flatterers  exhibited  him 


1  History  of  Greek  Literature , 
(Mahaffy),  p.  220. 

2  An  eminent  Greek  rhetorician, 
renowned  throughout  Asia  for  his 
eloquence.  Cicero  compared  him 
to  Brutus.  He  was  a  disciple  of 
Apollonius. 

3  Probably  nothing  was  more 
ridiculous  than  the  figure  of  this 
silly  and  profligate  emperor  in  con¬ 


tending  for  prizes  in  the  Roman 
arena.  But  what  could  be  ex¬ 
pected  ? —  the  first  instructors  of 
Nero  were  a  dancer  and  a  barber. 
It  is  true  that  at  the  age  of  twelve 
he  was  put  under  Seneca,  and  re¬ 
ceived,  no  doubt,  lessons  in  litera¬ 
ture  and  philosophy;  but  it  seems 
his  mind  had  received  its  permanent 
bent,  and  he  preferred  the  buffoon. 


OF  TYANA. 


171 


to  conquer  at  the  Olympian  games,  and  had  a  procla¬ 
mation  of  it  made  at  Rome  by  the  voice  of  a  common 
herald,  he  said,  “  But  what  if  the  Eleans  chastise  me  ? 
for  I  am  informed  they  scourge  with  rods,  and  take 
more  upon  themselves  than  I  do  myself.”  These,  with 
many  other  impertinences,  he  used  to  utter.  “  For  my 
own  part,”  said  Apollonius,  “  I  suppose  he  will  conquer 
at  Olympia,  for  who  would  be  so  foolhardy  as  to  con¬ 
tend  against  him  ?  But  he  will  never  conquer  at  the 
Olympian  games  when  celebrated  after  the  due  and 
ancient  manner;  for  when,  by  the  law  of  Greece,  the 
Olympic  games  should  have  been  solemnized  last  year, 
Nero  ordered  them  to  be  adjourned  till  he  came  him¬ 
self,  as  if  the  sacrifices  on  the  occasion  were  to  be 
offered  to  him  instead  of  Jupiter.  And  what  are  we  to 
think  of  his  laying  aside  the  royal  purple  of  Augustus 
and  Julius,  and  putting  on  that  of  Amcebeus  and  Terp- 
sius,1  and  piquing  himself  to  express  distinctly  or  rep¬ 
resent  with  exactness  the  sentiments  of  Creon  and 
GEdipus,  which  he  never  understood  ?  How  can  an 
actor  appear  in  the  characters  of  CEnomaus  and  Cres- 
phontes  and  be  no  more  impressed  with  the  nobility 
of  the  characters  than  to  leave  the  stage,  get  drunk,2 
assault  and  rob  unarmed  citizens,  and  commit  acts  of 
the  most  unparalleled  obscenity  and  tyranny  ?  What 
are  we  to  think  of  his  departing  so  far  from  the  dignity 
becoming  an  emperor  and  that  of  the  Roman  people  as 
to  thrill  notes  of  music  to  impressed  audiences,3  and 

1  Two  celebrated  musicians.  As  2  Cf.  Aloge  de  Vlvresse  (par  Sal- 
soon  as  Nero  became  emperor  he  lengre)  a  Bacchopolis  et  Paris,  p.  90. 
sent  for  the  harper  Terpsius,  and  3  He  sang  the  pieces,  “  Orestes, 
by  his  side  he  used  to  sit  while  he  the  Murderer  of  his  Mother,” 
played  after  supper  until  late  at  “  CEdipus  Blinded,”  and  “Hercules 
night. — Suetonius .  Mad.” — Suetonius ,  p.  352. 


172 


APOLLONIUS 


trail  the  royal  purple  in  the  filth  of  the  stage  instead 
of  enforcing  the  laws  for  the  regulation  of  morals  and 
the  extension  of  the  empire  ?  And  then  there  are 
tragedians  among  whom  he  wishes  to  have  his  name 
enrolled.1  Who  appears,  think  you,  O  Menippus !  most 
reprehensible  in  the  eyes  of  the  Greeks, —  Xerxes  lay¬ 
ing  all  things  waste  with  fire  and  sword,  or  Nero  strid¬ 
ing  across  the  stage  and  singing  a  licentious  song  ?  If 
the  expense  to  the  state  of  one  of  his  songs  be  taken 
into  consideration,  with  the  expense  attending  official 
accusation  and  fines  and  sacrifices  springing  from  this 
great  royal  folly,  the  cost,  no  doubt,  would  exceed  that 
of  Xerxes  in  destroying  an  empire.  Every  person  was 
expected  to  attend  and  applaud  or  be  catechised,  as  : 
‘  You,  sir,  have  you  not  been  to  hear  Nero  ?’  or,  *  You 
attended,  but  did  not  listen  with  attention,’  ‘You 
laughed,  but  did  not  applaud,’  ‘  You  offered  no  sacrifice 
for  the  improvement  of  the  emperor’s  voice.’  I  say, 
when  you  consider  all  these  things,  you  will  not  differ 
with  me  in  thinking  that  Rome  has  many  Iliads  of  Woe 
(IXiac  Kaxcov)  of  which  to  complain.” 

Apollonius  charged  Nero  with  being  everything 
rather  than  a  musician,2  and  yet  a  musician  rather  than 
an  emperor ;  “  and  as  to  his  cutting  through  the  isthmus, 
or  whether  at  present  he  is  or  is  not  engaged  in  it, 
matters  not,3  for  I  have  long  foreseen  the  consequences 

1  Annals  of  Tacitus ,  b.  19,  c.  xv.  the  Adriatic  and  the  Aigean  seas, 

p.  263,  etc.  he  thought  to  save  the  passage 

2  Suetonius,  Nero,  xx.  around  Cape  Malea.  The  cut  was 

3  When  at  Corinth  Nero  formed  begun  at  Lechaeum,  and  by  immense 
the  design  of  cutting  through  the  labor  was  carried  about  four  stadia, 
isthmus  in  order  to  shorten  the  At  last  Nero  gave  it  up  on  the  ad- 
route  for  his  shipping.  By  joining  vice  of  some  Egyptians,  who  gave 


OF  TYANA. 


173 


by  the  suggestions  of  a  god,”  said  Apollonius.  “  But 
sure,”  said  Damis,  “  the  idea  of  cutting  through  the 
isthmus  far  exceeds  his  other  public  enterprises.1  You 
may  see  yourself  what  an  undertaking  it  is,  and  the 
benefits  to  arise  from  its  accomplishment.”  “  I  do,” 
said  Apollonius,  “  but  the  not  finishing  what  he  has 
begun  adds  nothing  to  his  glory.  It  is  an  appeal  to  the 
world  that  he  digs  no  better  than  he  sings.3  In  review¬ 
ing  the  actions  of  Xerxes,  I  commend  the  man,”  said 
Apollonius,  “  not  for  joining  the  Hellespont  by  a 
bridge,3  but  for  having  passed  over  it ;  while  Nero,  I 
plainly  foresaw,  would  never  sail  through  the  isthmus 
or  finish  what  he  had  begun,  for  it  was  not  his  project, 
but  Alexander’s,  and  Julius  Caesar  had  resolved  upon 
it ;  Nero  only  had  the  foolish  hardihood  to  undertake 
it.”  “  But,”  said  Damis,  “  Nero  should  be  applauded 
for  his  love  of  art  and  his  persistent  efforts  to  beautify 
and  adorn  the  capital  with  fine  temples  and  works  of 
art.”  “Yes,”  responded  Apollonius,  “he  did  order 
the  bronze  statue  of  Alexander  executed  by  Lysippus 
to  be  gilded ;  and,  in  his  insatiable  thirst  for  works  of 
art,  he  did  dispatch  the  ruthless  Acratus,  one  of  his 


it  as  their  opinion  that  vEgina  would 
be  drowned  by  the  overflow  of  the 
waters  of  Lechseum. 

1  Cf.  Apollonius  de  Tyane ,  etc. 
(Chassang),  p.  162. 

2  It  may  be  well  to  remind  the 
reader,  however,  that  Demetrius 
attempted  the  same  thing,  which 
was  also  projected  by  Julius  Caesar 
(c.  xliv. ),  but  they  all  failed.  It 
was  paralleled  by  the  great  under¬ 
taking  of  Claudius  to  drain  the 


Fucine  Lake,  for  the  purpose  of 
converting  its  bed  into  agricultural 
lands, —  an  enterprise  which  any 
wiser  man  would  long  have  hesi¬ 
tated  before  attempting.  He  em¬ 
ployed  thirty  thousand  men  eleven 
years.  Lake  Fucinus  still  adorns 
the  map  of  the  ancient  Sabin i. 

3  Xerxes  cut  a  channel  through 
Mount  Athos,  which  lies  upon  the 
iEgean  Sea,  for  his  fleet  to  sail 
through. 


174 


APOLLONIUS 


freedmen,  and  Secundus  Carinas,  both  bad  and  un¬ 
learned  men,  to  pillage  Greece  of  everything  which 
pleased  their  fancy  in  the  name  of  the  emperor.  In  all 
seriousness,  there  is  no  act  of  Nero  or  Tiberius  which 
does  them  less  dishonor  than  their  wholesale  theft  of 
Grecian  works  of  art  and  their  love  of  Grecian  genius. 
If  Nero’s  past  conduct  furnishes  any  material  upon 
which  to  prophesy  his  future,  I  think  when  the  climax 
comes  he  will  quit  Greece  in  terror  and  dismay,  and 
endeavor  to  reach  an  asylum  elsewhere.  Such  an  end 
is  in  euphony  with  such  a  life.”1  “  Do  not  too  much 
deride  the  merits  of  our  worthy  Nero,”  rejoined  Menip- 
pus ;  “  remember  the  lame  school-master  Tyrtseus,2  the 
bard  of  liberty  and  war ;  how  the  Spartans  in  a  dire 
extremity  were  directed  by  the  oracle  of  Delphi  to 
appeal  to  Athens  for  a  commander,  and  how  the  Athe¬ 
nians  in  derision  sent  the  young  man  Tyrtseus,  who  had 
no  military  fame  or  knowledge.  But  the  strains  of  his 
martial  poetry 3  roused  the  ancient  fire  of  Sparta  to  its 
former  height,  and  the  soldiers  galloped  into  battle 
chanting  his  war  odes,  and  in  one  campaign  so  inspired 
they  succeeded  in  saving  the  Spartan  nationality,  and 
in  reducing  the  insolent  foe  to  a  condition  of  helpless 
servitude.  And  what  may  not  our  Nero  yet  accom¬ 
plish  ?  for  Hesiod,  you  know,  so  says  Petronius,  was 
excluded  from  contending  at  the  Pythian  games  be¬ 
cause  he  could  not  play  the  lyre  as  an  accompaniment 
to  his  singing ;  and  you,  no  doubt,  have  observed  that 

1  Suetonius's  Twelve  Ccesars  ;  2  A  Greek  poet  and  musician,  born 

Nero  (Bohn  ed.,  1855),  ch.  xl.  There  at  Miletus,  685  b.  c. 
is  no  act  of  Nero’s  life  which  testi-  3  A  History  of  Classical  Greek  Lit- 

fies  to  Christ  or  Christians.  erature  (Mahaffy),  vol.  i.  p.  159,  etc. 


OF  TYANA . 


175 


all  heroes  suffer  more  or  less  when  brought  down  from 
their  pedestals  and  ‘  compelled  to  mingle  with  the 
crowd.’  ” 

“You  remember,  my  dear  Menippus,  the  elegant 
Petronius ;  I  am  just  informed  that  he,  in  consequence 
of  a  hint  from  the  gentle  Nero,  suggesting  to  him  that 
his  accomplishments  were  no  longer  agreeable  at  court, 
has  perished  by  his  own  hand.”1 

Spain  produced  many  celebrated  and  worthy  men 
about  this  period,  among  whom  was  C.  Silius  Italicus, 
a  celebrated  advocate,  born  A.  D.  20.  In  A.  D.  68  he 
was  sent  pro-consul  to  Asia, —  he  also  wrote  a  history 
of  the  Second  Punic  War;  L.  Annaeus  Seneca,  born 
just  before  the  Christian  era;  Pomponius  Mela,  the 
geographer,  was  also  born  in  Spain,  A.  D.  48, —  he  left 
a  work  on  Chorographia,  De  Solis  Orbis ;  M.  Valerius 
Martialis  was  born  in  Spain,  at  Bilbilis,  A.  D.  43,  and 
became  so  poor  that  he  begged  for  cast-off  clothing  ; 
he  lived  in  a  garret  because  he  could  not  afford  the 
luxury  of  a  fourth  story ;  he  was  ill  understood.  He 
went  to  Rome,  where  he  became  a  great  favorite  of 
Titus  and  Domitian,  and  left  twelve  hundred  epigrams 
in  fourteen  books.  Lucan,  a  stoic,  author  of  Pharsalia , 
was  born  in  Spain,  A.  D.  38. 2  M.  Fabius  Quintilian 


1  Petronius  Arbiter  was  a  skilled 
but  depraved  Latin  writer,  who  fur¬ 
nished  voluptuous  literature,  and 
figured  as  the  Arbiter  e legalities  at 
the  court  of  Nero ;  but  the  court 
had  outgrown  him  in  licentiousness, 
and  he  was  dismissed  with  a  gentle 
hint  from  Tigellinus  that  his  suicide 
would  save  the  trouble  of  summon¬ 


ing  an  executioner.  Petronius  in¬ 
terposed  no  defense.  He  committed 
suicide,  A.  d.  66.  He  was  author 
of  Satyricon,  a  classical  but  scan¬ 
dalous  work.  He  furnishes  no 
testimony  as  to  Christians. —  Cf. 
Heathen  Records  (Dr.  Giles),  p. 
91. 

2  Suetonius .  p.  544- 


176 


APOLLONIUS 


was  born  in  Spain,  A.  D.  42  ;  he  was  the  preceptor  of 
the  younger  Pliny.  His  History  of  Ancient  Literature 
is  a  very  precious  work.1  But  from  the  sixth  to  the 
sixteenth  century,  or  from  the  fall  of  paganism  and 
ascension  of  Christianity  to  the  beginning  of  the  age  of 
skepticism,  Spain  produced  no  noted  men  in  any  de¬ 
partment  of  science  or  literature,  except  as  heretics 
and  dissenters  from  the  established  church.  During 
the  earlier  period  of  the  later  contest  the  Arab  carried 
learning  and  the  arts  to  a  degree  of  cultivation  far  be¬ 
yond  anything  known  to  Christian  Spain.2 

The  revolt  of  Caius  Julius  Vindex,3  governor  of 
Gaul,  was  hatched  in  Spain,  during  the  period  of  Apol¬ 
lonius’s  exile  there.  The  prominent  conspirators  and 
principals  were  on  intimate  terms  with  him,  and  it  is 
said  that  he  was  consulted  and  advised  with,  concerning 
the  insurrection4  (a.  D.  68),  which  ended  the  dynasty 
of  Nero.  Damis,  in  his  journal,  very  cautiously  sug¬ 
gests  that  a  plot  may  have  been  contrived  between 
Apollonius  and  Vindex,  as  they  had  frequent  inter¬ 
views,5  one  of  which  lasted  three  days ;  and  Apollonius 


1  Cf.  Quintilian  Vita  (Hummel, 
1843)  >  Quintilian  and  Rousseau 
(V.  Otto,  1836);  Institutes  of  Ora¬ 
tory,  vol.  ii.  p.  4,  et  seq. 

2  History  of  Spanish  Literature, 
by  Frederick  Bouterwek,  trans¬ 
lated  from  the  German,  by  Thom- 
asina  Ross,  with  notes,  i2mo. 
(London),  p.  2;  Literature  of  S. 
Europe  (Sismondi),  art.  Spain. 

3  Cf.  Apollonius  de  Tyane ,  sa  Vie, 

ses  Voyages,  ses  Prodiges,  etc. ,  par 

A.  Chassang,  p.  194,  et  seq. 


4  Sulpicius  Galba  had  been  born 
about  the  same  time  as  Apollonius  ; 
he  had  been  consul  in  A.  D.  33  un¬ 
der  Tiberius,  and  at  the  time  of  the 
revolt  commanded  the  army  in 
Spain.  He  is  said  to  have  been  the 
richest  private  person  that  ever 
came  to  the  imperial  seat. —  Cf. 
Plutarch,  vol.  iii.  p.  463  ;  Suetonius, 
p.  408;  Annals  of  Tacitus,  b.  iii. 
55- 

5  An  Account  of  the  Life  of  Apol¬ 
lonius  Tyaneus  (Tillemont),  p.  17. 


OF  TYANA. 


1 77 


afterward  admitted  that,  in  the  assistance  he  gave  to 
Vindex,  he  aimed  a  blow  against  the  power  of  Nero. 
And  there  seems  but  little  doubt,  from  all  the  facts 
presented,  that  the  voluntary  exile  of  Apollonius  in 
Spain  was  a  mission  for  the  very  purpose  of  furthering 
and  perfecting  the  revolt  which  so  soon  followed  his 
departure.  He  was  on  terms  of  intimacy,  and  was  in 
communication  with  all  the  men  of  wealth  and  influ¬ 
ence  in  every  part  of  the  empire  who  opposed  the 
administration  of  Nero,  and  then  his  wonderful  secre¬ 
tiveness  seems  to  have  preeminently  qualified  him  for 
this  work  of  treason.  Not  even  Damis,  his  constant 
companion,  as  he  frequently  complains,  knew  or 
understood  the  movements  of  Apollonius.  Frequent 
conferences  were  held  between  the  governor  of  the 
province  of  Bsetica  and  Apollonius,  the  import  of 
which  no  one  knew  save  themselves ; 1  they  certainly 
were  never  for  philosophical  discussions  or  discourses, 
the  governor  having  no  taste  for  such  pursuits,  although 
a  man  of  excellent  character.  They  sometimes  met 
at  Gades.  Damis  supposes  that  a  plot  was  contrived 
for  putting  Nero  to  death.  When  they  parted,  the 
governor  embraced  Apollonius,  taking  leave  of  him 
with  these  words  :  “Farewell,  and  remember  Vindex.” 
Thus,  while  Nero  was  singing  at  Naples  and  Achaia, 
and  blaspheming  the  solemnity  of  the  Isthmian  and 
Olympian  games,  a  rebellion  was  maturing  in  the 
Hesperian  province  destined  to  deprive  him  of  his 
crown. 

On  the  fall  of  Nero,  Pliny,  a  friend  of  Apollonius, 
was  immediately  sent  procurator  to  Spain  by  Galba, 

1  Reville’s  Pagan  Christ ,  p.  31  ;  Plutarch,  vol.  iii.  464. 

23 


178 


APOLLONIUS 


and  remained  during  the  first  years  of  Vespasian.1 
Hadrian,  Ulpino,  Nerva,  and  Trajan  were  all  from 
Spain.2 

After  these  events  in  Spain,  Apollonius  and  his  dis¬ 
ciples  passed  over  into  Africa,3  Mauretania,  or  Nu- 
midia,  which  had  become  a  Roman  province  with 
Sallust  as  pro-consul,  whence,  partly  by  land  and 
partly  by  sea,  they  journeyed  along  the  African  coast, 
visiting  the  principal  places,  as  Caesarea  and  Carthage.4 
The  last  had  been  taken  and  burned  by  order  of  the 
Roman  senate,  but  which  was  now  being  remodeled 
and  rebuilt  under  an  order  of  Caesar  Augustus.  They 
visited  the  site  of  the  ancient  temple  of  TEsculapius  at 
Carthage,  said  to  have  been  the  most  elegant  structure 
in  existence.5  Apollonius  thinks  Carthage  better  fitted 
for  extensive  dominion  than  any  city  on  the  African 
coast,  and  far  more  desirable  than  Rome.  The  city 
lay  in  the  recesses  of  a  bay  to  the  west  of  the  Mercurii 
promontorium,  and  was  sheltered  in  its  position,  which 
commanded  both  the  eastern  and  western  Mediterra¬ 


nean,  and  faced  Rome,  with  Sicily  close  at  hand  as  a 
stepping-stone  or  vantage-ground  in  the  struggle  of 
conquest  or  commerce ;  and  he  thinks  Carthage  and 


not  Rome  ought  to  have 

1  Eunapii  Sophistce  prcefatis  in 
Vitas  Ph ilosophorum  (Geneva,  anno 
1616) ;  Plutarch’s  Lives ,  Galba. 

2  Rev.  Edward  Berwick’s  trans¬ 
lation  of  Philostratus ,  b.  v.  ch.  vii. 
p.  202;  Tacitus’  Annals,  b.  iv.  58. 

3  Tillemont,  p.  1 8. 

4  Blavatsky ,  vol.  i.  p.  520;  cf.  The 
Geography  of  Herodotus  (Wheeler, 
1854,  London),  p.  552. 


been  the  center  of  political 

5  Carthage  and  her  Remains,  be¬ 
ing  an  Account  of  Excavations  and 
Researches  on  the  Site  of  the  Phoeni¬ 
cian  Metropolis,  etc.,  by  Dr.  N. 
Davis,  F.  R.  G.  S.  (London,  1861); 
see  Polybius,  Diodorus,  Livy,  Ap- 
pian  ;  also  Mommson’s  History  of 
Greece;  Historical  Researches  into  the 
Politics,  Trade,  etc. ,  of  the  Carthagin¬ 
ians,  by  A.  H.  L.  Heeren,  vol.  i.  p.  26. 


OF  TYANA. 


179 


power.  Since  the  Carthaginian  defeat  by  Scipio  (b.  c. 
149)  and  the  burning  of  the  city  by  order  of  the  senate, 
it  had  remained  little  else  than  a  heap  of  ashes  up  to  the 
period  of  Julius  Csesar,  who  conceived  the  idea  of  re¬ 
building  the  city  ;  his  plan  was  carried  out  by  Augus¬ 
tus,  and  with  so  much  success  that  Carthage  had  never 
been  so  flourishing  or  powerful  as  at  the  period  of 
Apollonius’s  visit.1  From  Carthage  they  sailed  to 
Utica,  where  they  remained  but  a  short  time,  and 
took  ship  for  Sicily,  anciently  settled  by  the  Sicani,  a 
people  of  Spain,  who  formerly  possessed  the  island 
until  driven  out  by  Sicul.  They  landed  at  Lilybaeum,2 
a  town  of  Sicily,  founded  by  the  Carthaginians,3  under 
Hannibal  the  younger.  It  was  here  that  Apollonius 
heard  for  the  first  time  of  the  flight  and  death  of  Nero 
(a.  D.  68),  who  had  committed  suicide  at  the  villa  of 
Phaon,  one  of  his  freedmen,  four  miles  from  the  city  of 
Rome,  between  the  Salarian  and  Nomentana  Ways.4 
Although  Apollonius  had  heard  nothing  from  Rome,5 
he  knew  a  revolution  was  progressing.  When  Nero 


1  It  is  painful  again  to  refer  to  the 
melancholy  fact  that  with  Carthage, 
as  with  many  other  cities  referred 
to  in  this  work,  there  seems  to  have 
been  a  chasm  in  its  history  from 
about  B.  c.  122  to  A.  D.  439.  The 
only  information  we  gather  during 
this  period  of  it  is  from  the  itinera¬ 
ries  of  men  like  Apollonius;  and 
this  is  meager  enough. 

2  This  promontory  forms  the  west¬ 

ern  point  of  the  triangle  of  Sicily, 

and  Strabo  says  that  from  this  point 

you  could  see  vessels  enter  and 
depart  from  the  port  of  Carthage. 


3  There  are  no  coins  and  but  few 
medals  which  commemorate  Car¬ 
thaginian  history.  Their  coins  are 
nearly  all  of  Grecian  manufacture. 
The  type  is  Dido,  and  legends  refer 
to  its  founder  (Dido)  with  the  palm- 
tree  (Phoenician)  and  the  head  of 
the  horse,  which  is  always  con¬ 
sidered  a  favorable  omen. —  Hum¬ 
phrey’s  Coin  Manual,  vol.  i.  p.  63 ; 
cf  Eutropius’s  A bridgment of  Roman 
Mist,  b.  4,  ch.  xiv.  etc. 

4  Eutropius ,  book  7,  ch.  xx.  etc. ; 
Murphy’s  Tacitus,  p.  336. 

5  Suetonius ,  Nero,  b.  14,  p.  380. 


i8o 


APOLLONIUS 


first  heard  of  the  insurrection,  he  appeared  insensible 
of  its  magnitude,  treated  it  scornfully,  and  said  he 
would  produce  the  revolt  on  the  stage  if  Vindex  would 
permit  it.  Being  aroused  at  last,  however,  by  the  nu¬ 
merous  proclamations  of  Vindex  treating  him  with 
reproaches  and  contempt,  he,  in  a  letter  to  the  senate, 
exhorted  them  to  avenge  his  wrongs  and  those  of  the 
republic,  desiring  them  to  excuse  him  for  not  appearing 
in  the  senate,  as  he  had  a  cold.  To  these  entreaties 
the  senate  remained  inactive.  This  was  a  great  insult. 
But  nothing  so  much  galled  him  as  to  find  himself 
railed  at  as  a  pitiful  harper,  and,  instead  of  Nero,  called 
by  his  family  name,  ^Enobarbus.  But  when  he  heard 
that  Galba  and  the  Spanish  army  had  declared  against 
him,  he  fainted.1  He  soon  recovered,  however,  ex¬ 
claiming  :  “It  is  all  over  with  me  .”  2 

There  are  historians  who  have  discovered  no  redeem¬ 
ing  quality,  ever  so  small,  in  Nero,  and  I  must  myself 
say  that  his  good  qualities  were  microscopical ;  but  he 

was  far  in  advance  of  his  dav  in  his  love  of  art  and 

* 

nature.3 


1  Murphy’s  Tacitus ,  329. 

2  The  coins  of  Nero  bearing  his 
effigy  are  abundant  in  all  metals  and 
all  denominations,  as  well  Roman 
as  colonial  Greek  and  Egyptian.  Of 
his  wives,  however,  there  are  few 
of  Roman  mintage,  and  they  are 
rare  in  any  other  class.  The  por¬ 
trait  of  Octavia,  whose  beauty  and 
virtue  could  not  save  her  from  re¬ 
pudiation  and  death,  is  found  on 
several  foreign  coins.  Poppsea,  her 
depraved  but  beautiful  successor,  is 

found  most  commonly  on  the  potin 


coinage  of  Alexandria,  and  her 
daughter  Claudia,  who  died  at  four 
months  old  (a.  d.  64),  has  a  small 
brass  coin  struck  in  her  memory. 
The  portrait  of  his  third  wife,  Statilia 
Messalina,  is  only  found  on  imperial 
Greek  money. — Humphrey’s  Man- 
ualy  vol.  i.  p.  322. 

3  The  Romans  cared  little  for 
natural  beauty.  They  showed  great 
taste  in  selecting  their  sites  high 
above  the  level  of  the  surrounding 
districts,  so  that  an  unlimited  view 
for  three-quarters  of  the  horizon 


OF  TYANA. 


1 8 1 


Nero  being  the  last  of  the  imperial  line  of  the 
Caesars,  his  death  was  the  signal  for  a  general  disrup¬ 
tion.  Galba,  Vindex,  Otho,  and  Vitellius  succeeded 
each  other  as  rulers  in  Rome  with  alarming  rapidity. 
Lucius  Clodius  Macer,  a  Roman  general  stationed  in 
Africa,  also  aspired  to  be  emperor,  and  raised  a  revolt, 
but  Galba  wielded  supreme  power  long  enough  to  put 
him  to  death.1  Galba  was  slain  in  the  road  near  the 
Lake  Curtius,  in  the  Forum  Boarinni ;  Vindex  was  mur¬ 
dered  :  Otho  went  into  exile  in  Gaul : 2  Vitellius  was 


was  secured,  but  that  was  all.  The 
idea  of  such  a  thing  as  an  American 
park  or  an  American  play-ground 
was  unknown  to  them.  Their  most 
famous  villas  were  painfully  and 
artificially  stiff,  being  laid  out  in  reg¬ 
ular  squares  and  parallelograms, 
with  avenues  crossing  at  right  an¬ 
gles,  or  were  terraced  with  a  geo¬ 
metrical  precision,  in  straight  and 
symmetrical  lines.  Even  the  vegeta¬ 
tion  was  forced  into  rigid  geometrical 
figures ;  every  trace  of  the  free  im¬ 
pulse  of  nature  was  annihilated. 

But  there  is  one  exception  to  this 
rule :  there  was  one  man  who  con¬ 
ceived  and  carried  out  the  idea  of 
the  simplest  and  grandest  natural 
park ;  and  that  man  was  Nero.  The 
place  selected  for  this  great  work 
was  one  of  the  most  savage  cliffs  of 
the  Apennines,  the  gorge  of  the 
Simbruine  chain  between  Subiaco 
and  Terni  through  which  the  Arno 
forces  its  way  into  the  lower  valley 
crossed  by  the  Via  Valeria.  He 
began  by  damming  the  precipitous 
river  three  times,  each  dam  being 
at  a  lower  level  than  the  preceding 


one,  and  obtained  in  this  way  three 
lakes  and  three  magnificent  water¬ 
falls.  The  dam  was  nearly  two 
hundred  feet  high,  forty-four  feet 
thick,  and  sixty-six  feet  wide,  and 
supported  by  a  bridge  numbering 
some  twenty  arches,  seven  of  which 
have  been  discovered.  The  lake 
extended  two  miles  into  the  heart 
of  the  mountain,  winding  through 
the  projecting  spurs,  and  shaded  by 
dense  foliage  and  overhanging  rocks. 
On  its  banks  were  constructed  many 
buildings,  which,  from  their  small 
size  and  strange  architecture,  may 
be  considered  to  have  been  used  as 
hunting,  fishing,  and  bathing  lodges. 
One  of  these  elegant  little  establish¬ 
ments  has  been  discovered  right 
under  the  masonry  of  Santa  Scolas- 
tica,  at  the  place  at  which  the 
mountain  stream,  now  called  Fosso 
di  St.  Croce,  fell  into  the  lake. 

1  The  coins  of  this  prince  (Macer) 
were  struck  in  Africa. 

2  A  few  coins  were  struck  in  the 
name  of  Otho,  bearing  the  figure 
of  Victory. —  Humphrey’s  Manual, 
vol.  i.  p.  324. 


182 


APOLLONIUS 


lost  while  dreaming  of  supreme  power.1  Little  now 
remains  to  commemorate  their  short  and  eventful 
reigns  except  a'  few  coins  and  medals.2 

Having  now  visited  all  the  temples  at  Lilybaeum, 
including  that  of  Venus  on  Mount  Eryx,3  and  paid 
his  respects  to  their  gods,  Apollonius  set  out  for 
Agrigentum,4  where  they  arrived  on  the  fifth  day  (94 
miles),  having  passed  through  Selinus 5  and  Heraclea 
Minoa. 

Agrigentum  had  been  the  birthplace  of  Empedocles 
(b.  C.  450),  the  historian,  orator,  and  poet.6  It  was  here 


1  Servius  Sulpicius  Galba  was  born 
of  a  noble  family,  B.  c.  4.  He  was 
consul  under  Tiberius,  A.  d.  33. 
Under  Caligula  he  commanded  the 
army  in  Germany.  Claudius  made 
him  governor  in  Africa.  On  the 
death  of  Nero  he  was  in  command 
of  the  army  in  Spain,  A.  D.  68.  The 
troops  proclaimed  him  emperor, 
which  was  confirmed  by  the  senate. 
After  a  reign  of  seven  months  he 
lost  favor,  and  was  slain  on  the 
road.  He  was  beastly  in  his  habits. 
In  his  lusts  he  preferred  the  male 
sex  and  such  as  were  old ;  he  kept 
a  score  of  catamites. 

2  The  coins  of  Galba  now  extant 
are  very  fine  and  numerous,  and,  as 
historical  mentors,  have  their  value. 
They  may  be  known  by  the  head 
of  Galba,  military  figure,  female 
standing,  and  female  with  ears  of 
corn ;  inscribed,  Roma,  penasc. — 

IMP.  AVG. —  DIVA.  AVGVSTVS. — IMP. 
SER.  SVLP.  GALBA.  CAES.  AVG.  TR. 
P. —  LIB.  AVG. —  SER.  GALBA.  IMP. 
CAES.  AVG.  TR.  P.  They  are  of  all 


the  metals  —  gold,  silver,  bronze, 
brass,  copper.  Some  of  these  coins 
were  restored  by  Titus  and  Trajan. 
— Histoire  des  Empereurs  Romains 
depuis  Jules  C cesar  jusqu'a  Postu- 
mus,  avec  toutes  les  medailles  d'1 ar¬ 
gent  qiPils  ont  fait  baitre  de  leurs 
temps,  etc.,  par  J.  B.  Haultin  (Paris, 
de  Sommaville,  1645). 

3  Symbolical  Language  of  Ancient 
Art  and  Mythology  (Knight),  p.  55. 

4  The  History  and  Antiquities  of 
the  Doric  Race,  by  C.  O.  Muller, 
vol.  ii.  p.  168. 

5  History  of  Greek  Sculp  hire 

(Murray),  p.  79.  A  Phoenician  city, 
now  a  heap  of  ruins,  where  there  is 
not  even  shelter  for  wild  beasts.  It 
once  contained  a  population  of  a 
million.  In  Apollonius’s  day  it  was 
an  important  and  wealthy  city,  noted 
for  its  commerce  and  its  magnificent 
temples,  of  which  there  were  three 
principal  ones.  (Strabo  says  it  was 
in  ruins  in  his  day.) 

6  Quintilian’s  Institutes  of  Oratory, 
b.  iii.  1,  8. 


OF  TYANA. 


183 


that  the  peculiar  sect  of  philosophers  known  as  “  em¬ 
pirics,”  was  founded  by  Acron.  Apollonius  visited  the 
temple  of  Jupiter  Olympus,1  where  he  remained  during 
his  stay  in  the  city.  This  temple  he  regarded  as  one 
of  the  four  largest  and  most  important  in  the  world,2  the 
others  being  Diana  at  Ephesus,  Jupiter  at  Athens,  and 
Venus  at  Carthage, —  he  discoursing  in  the  mean  time 
to  his  followers  on  the  glory  of  the  ancient  city,3  and 
how  the  philosopher  Zeno  conspired  against  one  of  its 
rulers,  named  Phalaris,  who  had  enslaved  the  people,  for 
which  he  was  apprehended  and  put  to  tortures :  he, 
however,  confessed  none  of  the  names  of  his  accomplices, 
but  during  his  sufferings  continued  to  harangue  the 
people  on  their  inactivity  and  blindness,  and  their  power 
to  cure  their  grievances.4  Telemachus,  a  simple  citizen, 
discovered  a  half-suppressed  murmur  of  approbation 
among  the  populace  during  the  harangue  of  Zeno,  and, 
taking  advantage  of  the  moment,  called  on  all  those 
who  despised  the  tyrant  to  follow  him.  All  Agrigen- 
tum  was  in  a  moment  at  his  back.  He  immediately 
proceeded  to  the  palace,  seized  upon  the  person  of 
Phalaris,  and  stoned  him  to  death.  Both  rulers  and 
people  of  our  time,  said  Apollonius,  have  many  such 
opportunities  before  them,  and  many  examples,  yet 


1  The  dimensions  of  this  great 
temple  at  Agrigentum,  of  which  the 
site  now  hardly  remains,  were  three 
hundred  and  fifty-five  feet  long,  one 
hundred  and  seventy-two  wide,  and 
waslocated  so  as  to  overlook  the  city. 

2  History  of  Ancient  Art  (Franz 
von  Reber),  p.  220. 

3  The  coins  of  Agrigentum 


(AKPA)  confirm  many  important 
events  in  its  ancient  and  early  his¬ 
tory  ;  the  types  are  the  head  of  the 
river  god,  the  eagle,  and  the  crab. 
These  coins,  except  one  of  Augustus 
in  bronze,  are  too  old  to  be  service¬ 
able  in  our  inquiry. 

4  Zeller,  Phil,  der  Griechen ,  p. 
1020. 


APOLLONIUS 


184 

they  are  slow  to  learn  from  the  experience  of  others, 
and  generation  after  generation  of  subjects  are  tyrannized 
over,  and  generation  after  generation  of  rulers  come  to 
violent  deaths,  because  they  do  not  heed  these  lessons. 
If  a  man  resist  not  the  first  outrage,  he  is  far  less  able 
to  resist  the  second,  for  the  same  difficulty  that  in  the 
beginning  might  have  been  surmounted  grows  greater 
in  the  end.  “The  sword  was  made  to  use  when  the 
occasion  requires,  and  by  using  it  we  gain  respect.” 
Apollonius  also  visited  the  temple  of  Aesculapius,  and 
all  the  other  temples  of  the  city,1  and  having  no  further 
business  departed  for  Syracuse,  a  city  founded  by 
Achias  of  Corinth  seven  centuries  before  the  time  of 
Apollonius.2  At  the  time  of  his  journeyings  Syra¬ 
cuse  was  the  largest  city  in  the  world.  The  perimeter 
of  its  walls,  says  he,  was  one  hundred  and  eighty  stadia ; 
and  Cicero,  one  hundred  years  earlier,  calls  it  the 
greatest  and  most  beautiful  of  all  Grecian  cities.3  The 
decline  of  Syracuse  may,  however,  be  fixed  at  that  period 
when  it  fell  beneath  the  sword  of  leviathan  Rome.4 


1  Temple  of  Concord,  Ceres,  Juno, 
Hercules.  The  Egyptian  Apis  was 
also  worshiped  in  this  city. 

2  Eusebius. 

3  Cicero  in  Verr,  b.  iv.  53  ;  Pom- 
ponius  Mela,  b.  ii.  17. 

4  Haydn,  in  his  Dictionary  of 
Dates ,  gives  no  item  in  the  history 
or  chronology  of  Syracuse  between 
B.  c.  60  and  A.  D.  669,  over  seven 
hundred  years  a  blank,  during  prob¬ 
ably  the  most  interesting  and  event¬ 
ful  period  of  Syracusan  history. 
The  coins  of  Syracuse  are  too  early 
to  serve  any  historical  purpose  with 


us,  but  as  works  of  art  the  early 
coinage  of  Syracuse  has  no  parallel ; 
that  wonderful  “decadrachm,”  with 
the  serpent  head  of  Proserpine  or 
Ceres  on  the  obverse  and  the  mag¬ 
nificent  quadriga  four-horse  chariot 
on  the  reverse,  the  dashing  grandeur 
of  which,  with  Victory  crowning  the 
driver,  is  worthy  of  a  Phidias  or  a 
Lysippus.  It  is  superior  to  any¬ 
thing  produced  by  the  parent  states 
of  Greece.  The  head  of  Pallas  on 
the  coins  of  Thurium,  and  on  those 
of  Athens,  the  head  of  Jupiter  on 
the  didrachms  of  Philip  of  Macedon, 


OF  TYANA. 


185 


On  arriving  at  Syracuse,1  Apollonius  discovered  that 
quite  a  tumult  had  been  occasioned  by  the  circulation 
of  a  report  to  which  credence  had  been  given,  that  a 
Syracusan  woman  of  noble  family  had  given  birth  to  a 
monster  such  as  was  never  before  seen,  to  which  various 
interpretations  had  been  given  by  the  vulgar.  Apollo¬ 
nius  sent  Damis  to  ascertain  if  the  report  was  true,  and 
after  the  most  diligent  search  Damis  was  unable  to 
get  a  sight  of  the  monster,  but  was  made  acquainted 
with  its  character  by  many  who  had  seen  it ;  he  re¬ 
ported  that  the  creature  had  three  heads,  and  a  body 
of  marvelous  structure,  resembling  a  sea-monster.  In 
the  interpretation  of  this  startling  phenomenon,  Apol¬ 
lonius  said :  “  Rome  shall  have  three  emperors,  none 
of  whom  shall  live  to  secure  imperial  power.”  He 
had  reference  to  Galba,  Otho,  and  Vitellius ;  this  prob¬ 
ably  was  said  to  appease  the  superstition  of  his  hearers, 
and  whether  it  was  a  shrewd  political  guess  by  one 


the  head  of  Diana  on  some  of  those 
of  Ephesus,  and  Juno  on  the  coins 
of  Argos,  and  Pegasus  on  those  of 
Corinth,  are  undoubtedly  grand,  but 
none  reach  in  excellence  the  early 
productions  of  Syracuse.  The  head 
of  Jupiter,  the  liberator,  Diana,  the 
saviour,  and  the  Dolphin,  were 
early  Syracusan  types.  The  in¬ 
scriptions  are  in  Doric ;  on  the  ob¬ 
verse  they  generally  bore  the  image 
of  the  heads  of  Apollo,  Diana, 
Soteira,  Proserpine,  and  other  dei¬ 
ties.  It  will  be  impossible  to  give 
any  adequate  notion  of  the  coins  of 
Syracuse  or  even  of  Sicily,  during 
the  period  embraced  in  our  sketch, 
for  after  the  death  of  Augustus, 

24 


Sicilian  coins  became  the  currency 
of  the  civilized  world. — Humphrey’s 
Coin  Collector's  Manual ,  p.  68  ;  cf. 
Imperatorum  Romanorum  nuniis- 
mata  a  Pompejo  M.  ad  Heraclium 
ab.  A.  Oecone  olim  congesta,  studio 
et  cura  (Biragi,  1683).  Of  the  med¬ 
als  of  Syracuse  which  have  survived, 
there  is  one  in  bronze  bearing  the 
portrait  of  Gelon,  who  succeeded 
Hippocrates  (485  B.  c.),  and  one  of 
Hiero  I.,  brother  and  successor  of 
Gelon,  and  one  (another  Hiero) 
also  in  bronze. 

1  He  visited  all  the  principal 
cities  on  the  island. —  Le  Grand 
D’Aussy’s  Life  of  Apollonius,  vol.  ii. 
p.  98. 


APOLLONIUS 


1 86 


who  was  in  the  ring,  or  a  prophecy,  I  shall  not  pretend 


to  say. 

Apollonius  and  his  associates  now  took  up  their 
abode  in  the  temple  of  Minerva ; 1  but  he  made  fre¬ 
quent  visits  to  the  temples  of  Juno  and  Jupiter  Olym¬ 
pus,2  and  discoursed  much  with  the  priests,  by  whom 
he  was  well  received  and  entertained.  All  of  these 
temples,  as  well  as  the  walls  of  the  city,  had  undergone 
thorough  repairs  during  the  reign  of  Caligula.3  They 
also  visited  the  sacred  inclosure  and  grove  dedicated 
to  Apollo,4  in  which  was  erected  a  colossal  statue  of 
Apollo  Temenites ;  nothing  but  its  vast  magnitude  pre¬ 
vented  it  from  being  stolen  by  the  sacrilegious  hands 
of  Verres;  it  did  not,  however,  escape  Tiberius,  who 
removed  it  to  the  island  of  Caprese.5  It  was  at  Syra¬ 
cuse  that  Archimedes  was  born,  and  it  was  here  he  fell 
a  sacrifice  to  the  stupidity  of  one  of  the  soldiers  of 
Marcellus  during  the  siege  of  the  city  (212  B.  C.)  The¬ 
ocritus,6  the  poet,  who  charmed  all  Greece  and  Egypt 
by  the  beauty,  simplicity,  and  wisdom  of  his  idyls,  was 
a  native  of  Syracuse,  as  also  was  Philistus  the  historian 
and  the  patriotic  Hermocrates ;  and  the  noble  deeds  of 
Timoleon  were  performed  here.  And  it  was  to  Syra- 


1  Now  the  Christian  church,  “  Our 
Lady  of  the  Pillar.” — Marq.  of  Or¬ 
monde. 

2  Built  by  Hiero,  and  in  which 
he  displayed  the  Gallic  and  Illy¬ 
rian  spoils  presented  by  the  Roman 
senate.  It  is  now  the  church  of 
San  Giovanni. 

3  Plutarch,  vol.  i.  p.  376;  Old 
Pome  (Burns),  p.  177,  et  seq. 

4  And  hence  the  representation 


of  Apollo  Temenites  on  the  beauti¬ 
ful  coins  of  Syracuse,  accompanied 
with  a  lyre  and  sacrificial  vessel ;  it 
alluded  to  his  character  as  exciter  of 
pestilence,  with  Diana,  the  goddess 
of  healing  and  harmony,  on  the 
reverse. 

5  Travels  in  Sicily ,  Greece ,  etc. 
(Hughes),  vol.  i.  p.  82. 

6  History  of  Greek  Literature 

(Mahaffy),  p.  41 1. 


OF  TYANA . 


187 


cuse  Sappho  was  exiled,  and  here  she  died,  and  Sicily 
erected  a  statue  to  her,  by  Selanion,  in  the  Prytaneum,1 
which  was  stolen  by  Verres.2  After  having  fulfilled 
his  mission  at  Syracuse  Apollonius  and  his  friends  pro¬ 
ceeded  to  Catana,  which  stands  near  the  base  of  Mount 
y£tna,  an  eruption  of  which  had  a  few  years  prior  to 
this  (a.  D.  40)  so  frightened  Caligula  that  he  fled  from 
Messana  where  he  was  then  stopping,  and  could  never 
after  be  persuaded  to  visit  Sicily. 

Here  our  travelers  had  related  to  them  the  old  tra¬ 
dition  that  Typhceus  was  chained  in  the  subterranean 
passages  of  this  mountain,  and  from  whom  issued  that 
fire  which  fed  ALtna. ;  also  the  absurd  story  that  the 
thunder-stricken  Enceladus,  having  been  vanquished 
by  Jupiter,  was  bound  in  chains  and  buried  beneath 
the  load  of  Aitna.,  in  the  fiery  workshop  of  Hephrais 
(pit  of  Hades),  and  in  his  respirations  vomits  fire.3 
Our  philosophers  listened  to  all  these  idle  tales.  They, 
however,  accounted  for  the  phenomenon  in  a  more 
natural  way.  Apollonius  introduced  the  discussion 
with  asking  his  companions,  “  What  think  you  of  my¬ 
thology  as  written  and  sung  by  the  poets?”  “And 
what  think  you  of  fables  as  related  by  Misop  ?”  “And 
which  do  you  consider  contains  the  most  wisdom?” 

1  The  Prytaneum  was  a  place  in  Geography  of  Herodotus ,  by  T. 
which  the  magistrates  and  others  Wheeler,  p.  92. 

eminent  for  their  public  services  3  The  idea  of  JEtna.  being  a  vom- 
might  take  their  meals. — Livy,  lib.  itory  of  hell  was  subsequently  a 
1.  1 41.  received  article  of  Christian  faith. — 

2  Her  native  Lesbos,  however,  New  Curiosities  of  Literature  and 

atoned  for  her  exile  by  stamping  Book  of  the  Months,  by  George 
her  image  on  their  money  as  that  Sloane,  B.  A.,  2  vols.  (London, 
of  the  genius  of  their  cities. — The  1849),  vol.  ii.  p.  24. 


i88 


APOLLONIUS 


“Those  of  the  poets,”  replied  Menippus,  “because  they 
are  sung  as  if  true,  and  have  the  air  and  possibility  of 
truth  about  them,  whereas  the  stories  about  frogs  and 
asses  are  absurd,  triflings  with  truth,  and  are  only  fit  to 
be  swallowed  by  old  women  and  children.”  “And 
yet,”  said  Apollonius,  “  they  appear  to  me  best  adapted 
to  convey  wisdom.  The  heroic  fables  with  which  the 
poetry  abounds  which  you  seem  to  favor  are  often  cor¬ 
rupt  and  very  absurd.  They  are  made  up  of  amours, 
incestuous  marriages,  blasphemies  against  the  gods, 
unbecoming  and  criminal  strategies  resorted  to,  to 
gratify  the  passion  for  glory  or  lust.  The  poets  do  not 
appeal  to  the  higher  attributes  of  man,  but  to  his  lower 
instincts,  and  they  stimulate  his  desire  to  gratify  or 
propitiate  the  gods  who  were  avaricious,  lascivious,  and 
cruel,  rather  than  cultivate  those  tender  emotions  which 
go  out  from  man  to  his  fellows  and  exalt  him.  The 
method  of  the  poets  is  the  old  method  involving  the 
code,  that  ‘  to  the  gods  belong  all  things.’ 1  But 
Aisop  in  his  wisdom  has  opened  a  new  and  I  think  a 
more  praiseworthy  road  to  wisdom  and  virtue,  in  lay¬ 
ing  before  us  the  claims  of  humanity.  He  treats  us 
with  common  fare,  it  is  true,  frogs  and  asses  ([x50oc 
Aiawxswc;),  but  his  feast  is  well  served  and  is  replete 
with  great  moral  instruction.  The  poets  use  every 
strategy  to  give  their  mythology  the  air  of  probability, 
and  then  leave  us  to  examine  into  its  reality.  Aisop 
presents  us  no  such  alternative ;  he  proposes  his  story 
of  talking  animals  and  sensible  things,  which  we  all 
know  to  be  false,  with  an  aptness  of  attribute  which 

1  Cf.  History  of  Classical  Greek  Literature  (Mahaffy),  vol.  i.,  The  Poets  ; 
Aristotle’s  Treatise  on  Poetry  { Twining),  vol.  ii.  pp.  373,  41 1. 


OF  TYANA. 


189 


shows  his  wonderful  ready  wit;  and  then  he  subjoins 
his  moral,  the  force  of  which  the  most  ordinary  person 
can  understand.  We  begin  in  our  very  infancy  to  suck 
in  knowledge  and  instruction  from  the  works  of  Hisop.1 
We  form  noble  and  ignoble  notions  of  certain  animals, 
of  their  innocence  and  cunning,  which  never  desert 
us.  The  oracle  which  ^Esop  has  annexed  to  every 
fable  never  fades  from  our  memories.  For  these  rea¬ 
sons,  I  prefer  ^Esop  to  Homer,”  said  Apollonius.2 
“  Having  proposed  a  discussion  on  the  phenomenon  of 
JE tna,  I  may  be  accused  of  trifling  by 'indulging  in  this 
praise  of  fables.  As  to  the  highly  improbable  though 
common  story  of  the  giant  Typhceus,  or  Enceladus, 
bound  in  chains,3  I  know  not;  but  I  know  there  are 
giants,  for  their  bodies  have  been  seen  wherever  their 
tombs  were  opened.4  And  although  I  make  this  asser- 


1  A  History  of  Classical  Greek 
Literature,  by  Rev.  J.  Mahaffy,  2 
vols.,  vol.  i.  p.  93,  etc.;  also, 
Manual  of  the  Hist .  of  Greek  and 
Roman  Literature  (Matthiae),  p.  28, 
etc. 

2  Aristophanes  calls  the  fables  of 
y'Esop  Xo-fot,  and  not  poOo?. — Lar- 
cher’s  Notes  on  Herodotus,  vol.  i.  p. 

364 ;  Plutarch,  in  Convivio  Septem 
Sapientium,  p.  150. 

Plato,  after  having  banished  Ho¬ 
mer  from  his  commonwealth,  gave 
H£sop  a  very  honorable  place  in  it. 
He  wishes  that  children  were  to 
suck  these  fables  with  their  milk, 
and  recommends  nurses  to  teach 
them,  for  one-  cannot  accustom 
children  too  soon  to  wisdom  and 
virtue. 


3  Pindar,  in  Pythian  Odes ;  H£s- 
chylus,  Thucydides,  and  Virgil  refer 
frequently  to  .Etna ;  so  also  Aris¬ 
totle  and  others. 

4  Strabo  mentions  the  skeleton  of 
a  giant  sixty  cubits  in  height.  Pliny 
tells  of  another  forty- six  cubits. 
Boccaccio  describes  one  found  in 
Sicily  in  a  cave,  two  hundred  cubits 
in  length,  and  whose  tooth  weighed 
two  hundred  ounces.  Antaeus,  sixty 
cubits  in  height,  mentioned  by  Plu¬ 
tarch  ;  Eleazar,  mentioned  by  Jose¬ 
phus.  Pausanias,  in  third  volume, 
p.  271,  note  to  vol.  i.,  gives  some 
interesting  details  about  giants.  The 
best-attested  accounts  of  giants  are 
those  of  Acamas,  one  of  the  Cy¬ 
clops  ;  Brontes,  another  of  the  Cy¬ 
clops  ;  Pyrachmon,  another ;  Agrios, 


APOLLONIUS 


190 


tion,  I  do  not  believe  that  they  ever  fought  with  the 
gods ; 1  but  I  know  that  they,  as  well  as  the  gods,  be¬ 
haved  scandalously  and  with  great  irreverence  in  their 
temples  and  at  their  shrines ;  but  as  to  their  scaling  the 
heavens  and  driving  the  gods  into  exile,  I  think  it  fool¬ 
ish  to  conceive  and  blasphemous  to  utter.”  Apollonius 
declared  that  these  eruptions  were  caused  by  internal 
submountain  and  submarine  fires  seeking  vent,  and 
these  were  nourished  by  winds,  which  penetrate  into 
the  mountain.2 

“  There  are  many  burning  mountains,”  said  he,  “  on 
various  parts  of  the  earth,  and  it  is  the  greatest 
absurdity  to  assign  their  activity  to  the  agency  of 
giants  and  Vulcans.  For  these  things  the  poets  are  re¬ 
sponsible.”  3  Apollonius  said  “  he  did  not  believe  the 


one  of  the  Titans;  Alcyoneus  (Ar- 
gonautic  expedition);  Clytios, killed 
by  Vulcan;  Cormoran,  the  Corin¬ 
thian  giant  (Jack  the  Giant-killer)  ; 
Eurytios,  killed  by  Bacchus  ;  God- 
mer,  a  British  giant ;  Maul,  the  giant 
of  sophistry  ;  Patrick  Cotter,  8  feet 
7 y2  inches  ;  William  Evans,  8  feet ; 
Gabara  (Arab),  9  feet  9  inches ; 
John  Middleton,  9  feet  3  inches. — 
Les  My  s  teres  du  Syncretisme  Phry- 
gien  dans  les  Catacombs  Romaines 
de  Pretextat ,  par  Raphael  Garrucci, 
S.  J.  (1854),  p.  215. 

1  Pausanias,  vol.  iii.  p.  338,  notes 
to  vol.  ii. 

2  These  ideas  were  more  fully 
exposed  in  a  poem  by  Lucilius 
Junior,  procurator  of  Sicily  under 
Nero,  entitled  FEtna.  The  author¬ 
ship  of  this  poem,  however,  has 
long  been  a  disputed  point ;  it  has 


been  attributed  to  Virgil,  Claudian, 
Quintilius,  Varus,  Manilius,  and,  by 
Joseph  Scaliger,  to  Cornelius  Sev- 
erus,  to  whom  Septimius  Severus 
was  related.  He  was  author  of 
Bellum  Siculum ;  he  lived  in  the 
days  of  Augustus.  Lucilius  ridi¬ 
cules  the  ideas  of  the  poets  as  re¬ 
gards  the  connection  of  Aitna  with 
Vulcan  and  the  Cyclops,  as  well  as 
those  myths,  Demeter  and  Proser¬ 
pine,  Acis  and  Galatea,  Polyphemus 
and  Cyclops. — Cf  Lucilius  Junioris, 
Adtna ,  Recensuit  notasque ;  Jos. 
Scaliger,  Frid  Lindenbruchii  et  suas 
addidit  (Fredericus  Jacobs,  Lipsiae, 
1826)  ;  U Etna  de  Lucilius  Junior , 
par  Chenu  (Paris,  1843),  p.  8. 

3  Etna  :  A  History  of  the  Mount¬ 
ain  and  its  Irruptions,  by  G.  F. 
Rodwell  (London,  1878),  p.  4,  etc. ; 
An  Account  of  the  Principal  Re - 


OF  TYANA. 


191 

popular  story  that  the  most  excellent  Empedocles,  the 
Pythagorean  and  stoic,  being  accused  of  pride  and 
impiety,  precipitated  himself  into  the  crater  of  ^Etna,  in 
order  to  give  currency  to  the  story  of  his  apotheosis 
and  to  obtain  divine  honors.”  “  Then,”  said  Damis, 
“  I  suppose  we  may  utterly  dismiss  the  more  popular 
story  that  his  brazen  sandals  were  thrown  out  of  the 
mouth  of  the  crater  five  days  after  his  immolation.” 
Exhorting  all  men  to  the  practice  of  virtue,  Apollonius 
closed  his  discourse.1  He  passed  one  year  in  Sicily, 
whence,  designing  to  visit  Athens  a  second  time,  he 
took  ship  at  Messana,2  and  in  the  autumn,  about  the 
rising  of  the  star  Arcturus  (first  of  September,  A.  D. 
69),  passed  over  into  Greece.  The  voyage  was  pros¬ 
perous  and  favored  with  good  winds  as  far  as  Leucas, 
on  the  island*  Leucadia,  where  arriving,  he  said  to  his 
followers :  “  Let  us  leave  this  ship,  for  it  is  not  good 
for  us  to  sail  in  her  to  Achaia.”  These  words  made  an 
impression  only  on  those  who  knew  the  man.  They 


mains  of  Antiquity  of  the  Island 
(Marquis  of  Ormonde),  p.  127. 

The  contest  of  earth  and  sky 
(Ouranous  and  Ge),  which  the 
Greek  fable  Typhoeus  (To  cpoov) 
brings  before  us,  not  only  the  lo¬ 
cality  associated  with  volcanic  en¬ 
ergy  about  vEtna,  but  is  traceable 
in  the  Calacecaumene  and  elsewhere 
in  Asia  Minor,  and  in  the  more  gen¬ 
eral  form,  which  recognized  a  pow¬ 
erful  spirit  of  evil.  It  occurs  in 
Egyptian  mythology,  when  Typhon 
is  opposed  to  Osiris,  and  as  Ahri- 
man  to  Ormuzd  in  Persian  story. — 
Vesuvius ,  by  John  Phillips,  p.  2; 


Iliad,  b.  i.  780  ;  Pythian  Ode,  Pin¬ 
dar,  i.  33  ;  JEschylus,  i.  363  ;  Dio¬ 
dorus  Siculus,  iv.  c.  21  ;  cf.  Strabo. 

1  It  is  more  probable  that  Emped¬ 
ocles,  like  Pliny,  perished  through 
his  devotion  to  science,  and  the  fool¬ 
ish  story  of  his  immolation  was  a 
fabrication  of  his  enemies.  The 
fame  of  Empedocles  was  very  great. 
In  the  fine  painting  of  Raphael  rep¬ 
resenting  the  school  of  Athens, 
Empedocles  is  placed  between  Ar¬ 
chimedes  and  Pythagoras. 

2  Cf.  The  Principal  Remains  of 
Antiquity  existing  in  Sicily,  etc. 
(Marquis  of  Ormonde),  p.  22,  etc. 


192 


APOLLONIUS 


then  embarked  in  another  vessel-  and  left  port  for 
Lechaeum,  the  sea-port  of  Corinth.  They  had  hardly 
left  the  harbor  when  boisterous  weather  set  in,  and 
after  three  days’  struggling  with  the  elements,  put  into 
the  port  of  Ithaca,  on  one  of  the  Ionian  islands,  for 
supplies.  Then  they  made  sail  and  stood  to  the  east¬ 
ward  with  fairer  weather,  but  were  compelled  to  make 
the  harbor  Chalcis ;  and  while  lying  in  this  port  they 
heard  of  the  loss  of  the  Syracusan  ship  which  they  had 
left  at  Leucas.  She  sank  while  navigating  the  Gulf  of 
Crissa.1  From  Chalcis  they  sailed  for  Lechaeum,  in  the 
Bay  of  Corinth,  where  they  debarked  and  proceeded  to 
Corinth,2  and  without  halting  pressed  on  to  Port  Schce- 
nus,  on  the  Saronic  Gulf,  spending  one  night,  however, 
at  the  temple  Poseidon,  near  the  port,  and  on  the  next 
day  sailed  for  Athens.  At  Athens  Apollonius  met  the 
philosopher  Demetrius,  whom  Nero  had  retired  after 
his  celebrated  speech  concerning  the  oil-baths.  The 
pleasure  of  their  meeting  was  mutual,  and  after  two 
days  of  counsel  and  conference  Apollonius  presented 
himself  for  initiation  into  the  mysteries,  and  the  rites 
were  performed  by  the  very  hierophant  whom  he  de¬ 
clared  should  be  the  successor  of  the  hierophant  who 
had  formerly  refused  him  initiation.3  Apollonius  was 
frequently  with  Demetrius,  the  latter  of  whom  had  re¬ 
mained  in  Greece  during  all  the  time  that  Nero  was 
conducting  himself  so  indecently  at  public  exhibitions,4 


1  Berwick’s  Apollonius  of  Tyana , 
p.  266. 

2  For  description,  see  Geography 

of  Herodotus ,  by  Talboys  Wheeler, 

p.  41,  etc. 


3  Apollonius  de  Tyane  (Chassang), 
p.  188. 

4  Suetonius,  Nero,  b.  xxiii. ;  His- 
toire  des  Empereurs  (Merivale). 


OF  TYANA. 


193 


although  he  felt  that  it  was  hazardous  to  do  so ;  but 
with  the  murder  of  the  tyrant  came  relief.  Demetrius 
told  Apollonius  that  he  had  visited  Corinth  and  had 
seen  Musonius  at  the  isthmus  bound  in  chains  and 
forced  to  dig.  Musonius  recognized  Demetrius,  and 
raising  his  eyes,  said :  “  I  know,  Demetrius,  you  are 
troubled  to  see  me  thus  employed,  but  what  would  you 
have  said  had  you  seen  me  playing  on  a  harp,  like 
Nero?”  Musonius  was  reinstated  under  Vespasian, 
and  was  made  an  exception  to  the  general  sentence  of 
Vespasian  exiling  all  stoics.  Apollonius  passed  the 
winter  in  Greece,  and  in  the  spring  he  determined  to  go 
into  Egypt.  In  visiting  the  several  cities  of  Greece  and 
their  temples,  he  never  failed  giving  those  in  charge 
the  best  advice  of  which  he  was  possessed.  He  saw 
much  to  censure  and  much  to  commend,  and  he  never 
spared  praise  when  it  was  due.  Great  reformation 
was  wrought  in  administering  the  rites  and  in  the 
moral  practice  of  the  temples,  through  the  teachings 
of  Apollonius. 

In  pursuance  of  his  determination  to  visit  Egypt,  he 
departed  from  Athens,  taking  the  long  wall  to  Piraeeus, 
and  sailed  into  Ionia.  The  ship  in  which  they  had  en¬ 
gaged  passage  was  freighted  with  images  of  gods, 
Lares  and  Penates,  manufactured  at  Athens  for  the 
Ionian  market.  The  merchant  who  owned  the  ship 
did  not  like  the  taking  of  passengers  in  the  same  ship 
with  his  sacred  cargo.  Apollonius  inquired  of  him  the 
cause  of  his  dissatisfaction,  and  if  he  thought  they 
would  be  likely  to  rob  him  of  his  treasures.  He  re¬ 
plied  that  he  did  not  like  so  promiscuous  a  multitude, 
and  feared  the  gods  would  be  defiled  by  the  vicious 
25 


194 


APOLLONIUS 


conversations  of  passengers  and  common  sailors. 
Apollonius  could  not  suppress  a  smile  at  this,  but  con¬ 
tinued  in  all  seriousness  :  “  My  good  sir,  the  vessels 

fitted  out  by  you  against  the  barbarians  (for  I  perceive 
you  are  an  Athenian)  abound  in  all  licentiousness,  and 
yet  the  gods  never  thought  themselves  defiled  by  em¬ 
barking  in  them.  You  are  wrong  in  preventing  philos¬ 
ophers  going  aboard  of  your  vessel,  in  whose  company 
the  gods  delight,  and  more  especially  when  you  are 
trying  to  turn  these  deities  to  the  greatest  advantage. 
Do  you  not  think  that  yourself  are  guilty  of  a  great 
impiety  in  hawking  them  from  port  to  port,  like  a 
cargo  of  Hyrcanian  or  Scythian  slaves  ?  Think  you 
there  is  no  danger  of  the  gods  revolting  at  such  profa¬ 
nation  ?  ” 1  Then,  turning  to  his  followers,  he  said : 
“  It  would  be  injudicious  in  us  to  attempt  to  go  against 
the  stream ;  it  might  expose  us  to  danger.  Socrates 
was  the  only  man  who  had  courage  to  undertake  it, 
and  it  proved  his  ruin.  Truth  is  known  to  a  very  few, 
and  false  opinions  go  current  with  the  rest  of  the 
world.  The  wise  man  retires  within  the  sanctuary  of 
silence.5’  Saying  this,  they  retired  and  took  passage  in 
another  ship  for  Chios.  On  arriving  at  Chios,2  without 
going  on  shore,  they  quietly  entered  another  ship, 
which  the  herald  was  proclaiming  was  ready  to  sail  for 
Rhodes.  They  embarked  in  deep  silence,  this  being 
the  mood  in  which  the  master  had  passed  several  days, 
they  all  being  desirous  to  please  and  obey  him  in  all 
things.  As  the  vessel  was  getting  under  way  he 

1  Apollonius  frequently  indulged  (Wheeler),  p.  104,  etc. ;  see  Account 
in  sarcasm,  but  the  pungency  of  of  Chios,  Newton’s  Travels  and 
the  above  is  particularly  refreshing.  Discoveries  in  the  Levant ,  vol.  i. 

2  See  Geography  of  Herodotus  p.  214. 


OF  TYANA. 


195 


raised  his  eyes  to  heaven  and  uttered  a  short  invoca¬ 
tion  to  the  god  Nereus1  for  his  fatherly  protection.  A 
favorable  wind  soon  carried  them  to  their  destination. 
On  the  morning  of  their  arrival  the  sea-born  “  Island 
of  the  Sun  ”  was  in  a  garment  of  fog,  but  they  went 
on  shore.  Rhodes  presented  many  things  of  interest 
to  Apollonius  and  his  companions.  It  was  celebrated 
in  antiquity  as  the  island  of  serpents,  hence  the  legend 
of  the  dragon,  probably.  Apollonius  supposed  the 
monster  to  have  been  brought  from  Egypt,  and  was 
simply  a  crocodile  —  quite  impossible. 

“What,”  said  Damis  one  day  as  they  were  viewing 
the  Colossus,  which  was  now  in  ruins,  having  been 
thrown  down  by  an  earthquake  many  years  before,2 
“  do  you  consider  greater  than  this  monstrous  work  of 
art  ?”  “A  man,”  said  the  master,  “whose  mind  is  de¬ 
voted  to  philosophy.” 

Rhodes3  was  celebrated  as  being  the  birthplace  of 
Apollonius,  the  sculptor,  whose  great  work  in  marble, 
Zethus  and  Amphion,  Pliny  says,  was  brought  to 
Rome.  It  is  now  probably  at  Naples,  as  “  Toro  Far- 
nese.”  Also  of  Pergamon,  the  sculptor,  who  produced 
“The  Wrestlers.” 

Here  also  flourished  Apollonius  Rhodes,  and  here  he 
obtained  great  honors.  This  was  the  same  Apollonius 


1  Nyjpet)^,  a  marine  divinity  of 
classic  mythology,  son  of  Pontus 
and  Earth.  He  lived  at  the  bot¬ 
tom  of  the  sea,  and  possessed  the 
secret  of  the  golden  apples  of  Hes- 
perides. 

2  This  celebrated  work  of  art  was 

made  of  bronze  from  the  spoils  left 
by  Demetrius  Poliorcetes,  when  he 


raised  the  prolonged  siege  of 
Rhodes.  The  sculptor  was  Chares, 
a  native  of  Lindus.  It  occupied 
twelve  years  in  construction,  and 
was  seventy  cubits  high. — Mittheil- 
ungen  des  deutschen  Instituts  in 
A  then,  part  i.  p.  45. 

3  Geography  of  Herodotus  ("Wheel¬ 
er),  p.  96. 


196 


APOLLONIUS 


who  succeeded  Eratosthenes  as  keeper  of  the  great 
library  at  Alexandria  (180  B.  c.)  He  was  the  author 
of  Argonautica } 

The  celebrated  Greek  stoic  philosopher,  Posidonius,1 2 
of  whom  Cicero  was  a  pupil,  resided  and  taught  moral 
philosophy  at  Rhodes.  He  was  a  native  of  Syria. 
The  day  Apollonius  entered  the  harbor  of  Rhodes  was 
two  years  before  the  city  was  taken  by  Vespasian  (A.  D. 
71).3  The  harbor  was  filled  with  shipping  from  every 
country  on  earth ;  the  Rhodians  themselves  being 
skillful  navigators,  and  merchants  possessing  great 
wealth  and  learning.  Apollonius  was  not  insensible 
to  the  great  advantage  enjoyed  by  commercial  peoples 
over  those  who  were  non-commercial,  and  especially 
was  the  contrast  observable  at  Rhodes,  for  the  Rhodians 
were  familiar  with  the  geography  and  products  of  all 
countries,  and  more  foreign  languages  were  spoken 
here  than  in  any  other  known  city.  He  commended 
the  Rhodians  for  their  industry  and  enterprise,  as  well 
as  their  love  for  learning  and  the  arts.  They  worshiped 
the  divine  Apelles  of  Cos,  the  greatest  of  all  artists ; 
but  Apollonius  upbraided  them  for  their  want  of  de¬ 
votion  to  the  gods.4 

Strabo  assigns  to  Rhodes  the  title  of  “  Sovereign 
Lady  of  the  Sea.”  But  the  Rhodians  themselves  had 
long  merited  the  title  with  which  their  own  historian, 


1  Quintilian’s  Institutes,  x.  1.  54. 
Cf.  Suetonius,  Life  of  the  Twelve 
Ccesars. 

2  Thomas’s  Dictionary,  Biog.  and 
Myth. 

3  After  this  period  absolutely 

nothing  is  known  of  Rhodes  until 


the  period  of  the  Knights  Hospital¬ 
lers,  in  the  thirteenth  century. 

4  The  old  story,  intelligence  and 
the  gods  were  never  bed-fellows. — Cf 
Suetonius,  Tranquillus,  Lives  of  the 
Twelve  Ccesars,  etc.,  by  Alex.  Thomp¬ 
son,  M.  D.  (London,  1855),  p.  3. 


OF  TYANA. 


19; 


Simmias,  had  invested  them :  “  Sons  of  the  Ocean.” 
Their  shipwrights  acquired  an  early  superiority  in  the 
construction  of  vessels,1  and  the  dockyards  of  Rhodes 
had  always  been  open  to  foreigners  ;  it  was  a  policy 
that  built  up  for  her  an  unparalleled  commerce  in  the 
days  of  her  ascendency  ;  no  other  people  tolerated 
such  freedom.  The  Rhodians  had  not  yet  forgotten 
their  Doric  manners,  and  they  still  preserved  strong 
proneness  for  the  mother  tongue.2 

Apollonius  says  that  Rhodes  was  built  in  the  form 
of  an  amphitheater,  facing  the  harbor.  The  temples, 
and  other  public  buildings,  were  adorned  with  cele¬ 
brated  works  of  art,  in  sculpture  and  painting  ;  no  less 
remarkable  was  the  city  itself,  which,  contained  more 
than  three  thousand  statues,  one  hundred  of  which 
were  colossal.3  The  temples,  the  public  buildings,  the 
streets,  the  theaters,  and  every  object  which  strikes  the 
eye  bore  the  stamp  of  grandeur  and  beauty. 

Protogenes,  one  of  the  most  celebrated  painters  of 
antiquity,  was  a  native  of  Rhodes.  He  was  seven  years 
painting  his  Ialysus,4  and  it  was  at  his  house  that  he 
had  an  interview  with  Apelles  of  Cos.5 


1  Their  vessels  were  constructed 
with  two  masts,  and  were  square- 
rigged  (xspatoi)>  with  two  sails  on 
each  mast  (totta  [isyaka .),  one  above 
the  other,  with  shrouds  (xoctXot). 

2  Cf.  An  Excellent  Account  of  the 

Island  of  Rhodes,  Cyprus ,  and  Crete, 
and  their  Antiquities  (published  in 
4to.  by  the  learned  professor,  J. 

Meursis,  at  Amsterdam,  1672);  Be- 
loe’s  Herodotus ,  vol.  iii.  pp.  260,  n. 

1 18;  Mitford’s  History  of  Greece , 


vol.  i.  p.  175;  Newton’s  Travels 
in  the  Orient,  vol.  ii.  p.  241. 

3  The  History  and  Antiquities  of 
the  Doric  Race  (Muller),  vol.  ii.  p. 
408. 

4  In  whose  honor  coins  were 
struck  in  the  fifth  century. 

5  Hist,  of  Ancient  Art  (Von  Re- 
ber),  p.  381;  Pliny,  Nat.  Hist., 
xxxiv.  c.  vi.  $  36. 

The  coins  oft  Rhodes  are  numer¬ 
ous,  and  are  in  nearly  an  unbroken 


198 


APOLLONIUS 


At  Rhodes  Apollonius  was  introduced  to  a  young 
man  who  had  become  suddenly  rich,  but  who  was 
without  education.  He  was  then  building  a  house,  and 
collecting  pictures  and  statues  from  all  parts  of  the 
world  to  adorn  it.  Apollonius  inquired  of  him  what 
money  he  had  expended  upon  preceptors  and  education. 
“  Not  a  drachma,”  said  the  young  man.  “  Pray,  what 
has  your  house  cost  you?”  inquired  Apollonius. 
“  Twelve  talents,  and  I  believe  it  will  cost  as  much 
more.”  “And  what  will  you  do  with  it?”  said  Apol¬ 
lonius.  “  I  will  live  splendidly  in  it,”  said  he;  “for  I 
shall  have  in  it  places  proper  for  all  manner  of  bodily 
exercise,  and  groves  in  which  to  walk ;  there  will  be 
little  or  no  necessity  forgoing  even  to  the  Forum.  And 
men,  I  think,  will  come  with  as  much  pleasure  to  visit 
me  as  they  would  to  a  temple,  and  I  have  no  doubt 
men  will  respect  me.”  “  But,”  said  Apollonius,  “  are 
men  to  be  respected  on  their  own  account,  or  on  ac¬ 
count  of  what  they  possess?”  “The  most  universal 
respect  is  that,”  said  the  youth,  “  which  is  paid  to  riches ; 
wealth  is  omnipotent  (Xp'/^aF  avrjp,  Pindar).  The  edu¬ 
cated  man,  it  is  true,  commands  respect  solely  on 
personal  merit,  but  such  respect  is  narrow  and  circum¬ 
scribed.”  “Whom  do  you  consider,”  said  Apollonius, 
“the  best  guardian  of  wealth,  the  educated  or  unedu- 


series  from  Tiberius  to  Commodus 
(200  A.  D.)  Some  of  the  coins  circu- 
latingherebore the  inscription,  aa.d. 
frv.  emv.  Ad  Fruges  Emundus 
(for  buying  corn) ;  and  again,  ALIM. 
ITAL.  Alitnenta  Italics.  The  pro¬ 
vision  of  Italy  for  the  purchase  of 
corn  to  be  distributed  in  Italy. — H. 


Goltzii,  Grcecice  universes  Asiceque 
minoris  et  Insularum  numismata 
veterum  (Antwerp,  1618),  pp. 

68-75. 

The  type  of  the  coin  of  the  city 
of  Rhodes  was  almost  exclusively 
limited  to  the  head  of  Helios. — 
Humphrey’s  Coin  Manual. 


OF  TYANA. 


199 


cated  ?”  The  youth  was  silent,  whereupon  Apollonius 
said,  “  In  my  opinion,  you  do  not  so  much  possess 
your  house  as  your  house  possesses  you  ;  for  when  I 
enter  a  temple,  it  matters  not  how  small,  I  have  greater 
pleasure  in  seeing  one  worthy  statue  of  ivory  and  gold 
than  I  have  in  seeing  a  spacious  temple  with  an  ill 
assortment  of  statues.” 

Damis  says  many  things  were  said  and  done  at 
Rhodes  to  the  credit  of  Apollonius.  Apollonius  now 
resolved  to  sail  immediately  for  Alexandria  in  Egypt, 
where  the  citizens  loved  him,  and  were  as  anxious  about 
him  as  if  he  were  an  old  acquaintance.1  The  people  of 
Upper  Egypt,  who  were  more  attached  to  philosophical 
than  theological  pursuits,  had  invited  him  to  pay  them  a 
visit.  He  took  ship  at  Rhodes,  but  the  wind  coming  on 
to  blow  from  the  north  and  east,  such  was  the  exposed 
nature  of  the  harbor  of  Rhodes  that  the  vessel  in  which 
they  had  taken  passage  was  obliged  to  make  sail,  and 
seek  shelter  elsewhere  ;  they  ran  under  the  island  of 
Cos.  Cos  was  hallowed  in  the  memory  of  Apollonius 
as  being  the  birthplace  of  Hippocrates,  called  the 
“  Divine  Old  Man,”  “  Father  of  Medicine.”  To  him  is 
justly  due  the  glory  of  having  destroyed  the  theological 
notion  of  disease,  and  replacing  it  with  practical  and 
material  ideas,  and  of  compiling  from  the  votive  tablets 
that  hung  in  the  temple  of  Aesculapius  a  body  of  medi¬ 
cal  “prognostics.”  Praxagoras,  the  first  writer  on  the 
pulse,  was  also  a  native  of  Cos;  also  Polybius,  who  estab¬ 
lished  the  rival  sect  of  dogmatici.2  As  soon  as  the  weather 
permitted  they  sailed  for  Cnidus,  on  the  coast  of  Doris 

1  Berwick’s  Life  of  Apollonius,  p.  1 60. 

2  Polybius  zur  Geschichte  antiker  Politik,  etc.  (K.  W.  Nitzsch,  1842). 


200 


APOLLONIUS 


in  Caria.  Here,  after  completing  their  cargo,  they  sailed 
directly  for  Alexandria.  While  at  Cnidus  Apollonius 
took  occasion  to  visit  the  mausoleum  erected  to  com¬ 
memorate  the  defeat  of  the  Lacedaemonians  by  the 
Athenian,  Commodore  Conon,  in  a  great  naval  action 
which  took  place  off  Cnidus  (b.  C.  396).  “This,”  said 
Apollonius,  “  is  a  perpetual  memorial  of  Athenian 
supremacy  over  the  sea.”  It  stood  upon  a  high  prom¬ 
ontory.1  Owing  to  the  south-easterly  winds  which 
prevail  over  the  Carpathian  Sea  at  this  season  of  the 
year,  and  the  deep  lading  of  their  ship,  they  were 
tossed  about  for  five  days,  making  little  or  no  headway, 
and  came  near  being  driven  on  the  rocky  shores  of 
Crete.  More  favorable  weather,  however,  coming  on, 
on  the  tenth  day  out  they  made  the  Pharos  of  Alex¬ 
andria. 

Apollonius  entered  the  port  of  Alexandria  in  Egypt, 
A.  D.  69.  On  the  right  was  the  sea  and  the  great 
Pharos,  and  on  the  left  the  promontory  of  Lochias,  upon 
which  stood  the  palace  or  citadel  of  Marc  Antony’s 
fortress,  called  the  Timonium,  itself,  as  great  an  object 
of  wonder  as  the  light-house,  on  the  other.  In  this  port 
were  more  ships  than  in  any  other  port  in  the  world. 
Its  export  trade  was  greater  than  all  Italy.  The  quays 
were  busy  with  loading  and  unloading  from  strange 
vessels  with  uncouth  sails  and  rigging.  All  this  was  of 
great  interest  to  Apollonius,  while  Damis  looked  on  in 
silent  amazement.2 

1  Travels  and  Discoveries  in  the  2  The  coins  of  Egypt  have  played 
Levant,  by  C.  T.  Newton,  M.  A.,  no  inconsiderable  part  in  establish- 

2  vols.  (London,  1865),  vol.  ii.  pp.  ing  its  chronology,  and  in  bridging 
167,  227.  many  historical  chasms.  During 


OF  TYANA. 


201 


Alexandria  at  this  period  contained  a  population  of 
at  least  500,000  Greeks,  Jews,  and  Egyptians;1  the 
peace  of  the  city  was  perpetually  harassed  by  these 
factions,  who  possessed  but  few  virtues  in  common.2 
With  the  Egyptian  proper  there  existed  an  inordinate 
fondness  for  the  theater,  the  hippodrome,  and  all  dra¬ 
matic  representations ;  boxing,  wrestling,  and  horse¬ 


racing  were  among  the 
Alexandrian  Greek.  And 

the  first  years  of  the  reign  of  Nero, 
while  yet  under  the  tutorship  of 
Seneca,  there  is  attested  upon  her 
coins  that  Egypt  was  contented  and 
happy  under  the  Roman  yoke.  In 
the  third  year  there  is  a  coin  with  a 
queen  sitting  on  the  throne,  with  the 
word  “  agreement,”  meaning  with 
his  mother,  Agrippina.  On  another 
the  emperor  is  styled  the  young  good 
genius,  crowned  with  the  double 
crown  of  Egypt.  But  that  a  change 
took  place  in  Nero’s  conduct  toward 
Egypt  is  evident  from  a  coin  of  the 
thirteenth  year  of  his  reign.  (See 
Alexandrian  coins,  page  217  of  this 
work.)  De  inscriptione  quadam 
cegyptiaca  Taurini  inventa  et  char- 
acteribus  cegyptiis  olim  et  sinis  com- 
munibus  exarata ,  etc.  (Tubervillo 
Needham,  Romae,  1761),  p.  264, 
etc.  ;  Gerardi  Hasselti,  ampulla 
Isidis  AEgyptia  nunc  primum  luce 
publica  donata  et  illustrata  (Traj. 
Batav.  1777).  Egypt  became  a 
Roman  province  under  Tiberius, 
A.  D.  30. 

1  The  Conflict  of  Religion  and  Sci¬ 
ence  (Draper),  p.  17. 

26 


legitimate  sports  of  the 
yet  all  were  marvelously 

2  The  great  philosophical  struggle 
in  Alexandria  was  between  Neo- 
Platonism  and  Olympianism.  Neo- 
Platonism  was  strictly  monotheistic, 
and  utterly  opposed  to  the  worship 
of  idols  and  practice  of  magic.  But 
Olympianism  was  a  magic-practicing 
and  idol-worshiping  polytheism. 
The  former,  in  the  day  of  Apollo¬ 
nius,  was  the  religion  of  the  philoso¬ 
phers  (when  they  may  be  said  to 
have  had  any) ;  the  latter,  of  the 
aristocracy.  Its  heaven  was  Olym¬ 
pus. —  Philo  Judceus  (Bohn  ed., 

i855)>  vo1-  iv-  P-  67* 

Haydn,  in  his  Dictionary  of  Dates, 

refers  to  the  supplying  of  the  city  of 
Alexandria  with  a  library  by  An¬ 
tony  in  the  place  of  the  one  burned 
under  Julius  Caesar,  B.  C.  36  (which 
library  Antony  stole  from  Perga- 
mus).  After  this,  Haydn  makes 
no  reference  to  Alexandria  until 
297  A.  D.,  except  the  massacre  of  a 
youth  by  Caracalla.  And  Alexan¬ 
dria  was  filled  with  local  historians, 
and  was  as  productive  of  stirring 
events  during  this  lapse  as  at  any 
previous  or  subsequent  time. 


2  02 


APOLLONIUS 


religious, —  a  religion  more  encumbered  with  cere¬ 
monies,  and  accompanied  with  more  outward  splendor, 
than  any  othe'r  religion  on  earth.  An  infinite  con¬ 
course  of  people  combined  in  the  celebration  of  their 
religious  festivals,  of  which  there  were  many.  And 
such  were  the  preparations  made  for  them  by  the 
priests,  that  the  people  looked  forward  to  them  with 
pleasure  as  days  of  riot,  licentiousness,  and  debauchery. 
They  had  their  feasts  of  Diana,  Isis,  Minerva,  Latona, 
Apis,  and  Mars.  Luxuries  introduced  there  were  soon 
carried  to  the  highest  pitch  ;  all  gay  and  elegant  amuse¬ 
ments  degenerated  into  licentiousness.  These  things 
were  proverbial ;  public  morals  were  corrupt ;  and  yet 
of  all  the  places  known,  its  commerce  was  the  most 
flourishing.  It  was  the  center  of  wealth,  the  metropolis 
of  the  world  ;  to  all  of  this  Apollonius  bears  witness. 
The  native  Egyptians  were  a  dark-skinned,  industrious, 
patient,  and  mechanical  race,  capable  of  great  intellec¬ 
tual  exertion ;  and  the  liberal  and  useful  arts  were  cul¬ 
tivated  with  a  success  equal  to  their  commerce.1 
Apion  (an  author  with  whom  Apollonius  was  familiar), 
in  his  history  of  Egypt  (a.  D.  44),  considers  them  the 
most  learned  of  all  nations,  and  in  consequence  of  their 
great  love  for  study  they  have  produced  many  learned 
works.  They  had  correct  ideas  of  the  spherical  form  of 
the  earth,  its  poles,  axis,  equator,  arctic  and  antarctic 
circles,  equinoctial  points,  solstices,  specific  gravity,  and 
the  precision  of  the  equinoxes.2  All  of  which,  Apollo- 


1  Herodotus  gives  an  account 
of  the  physical  condition  of  the 
Egyptians,  ii.  104,  vol.  i.  p.  331. 
MeXdrfXP0^  dot  v'al  obXozpiysQ. 

2  Cf.  Conflict  between  Religion  and 
Science  (Draper),  p.  29.  It  was  two 


thousand  years  before  the  world  pro¬ 
duced  the  equal  of  Archimedes  and 
Conon  in  mathematics. — Cf.  Thom¬ 
as’s  Pronouncing  Diet,  of  Biog.  and 
Mythol .;  Astronomy  of  the  Ancients 
(Sir  G.  C.  Lewis,  1862),  p.  34,  et  seq. 


OF  TYANA. 


203 


nius  says,  is  confirmed  in  the  books  on  Ethics  and 
Physics ,  written  by  Apollodorus  Ephilus,  the  stoic.1 

Coming  as  Apollonius  did  from  scenes  of  struggle 
and  death,  elemental,  physical,  and  political, —  Spain 
with  her  thunderstorms,  Sicily  with  her  volcanoes,  and 
Rome  with  her  political  earthquakes ; 2  from  the  barren 
highlands  of  Syria  and  the  unexplored  plains  of  Meso¬ 
potamia, —  the  sublime  monotony  of  an  azure  and  rain¬ 
less  sky ; 3  the  limitless  latitude  of  the  great  oasis  of  the 
Nile  valley  to  his  vision,  with  its  perpetual  interbreeding 
succession  of  life  and  death,  was  a  new  universe,  with  no 
discords,  naught  but  a  perpetual  reign  of  symphonies. 


1  Both  Cyrus  and  Darius  sent  to 
Egypt  for  medical  men.  Homer 
declares  that  her  physicians  “  pos¬ 
sessed  knowledge  above  all  other 
men.”  And  not  only  this,  but 
wealthy  Romans  and  even  emperors 
aped  Alexandrian  manners  and  lux¬ 
uries.  Their  scarlet  robes,  their 
jewelry,  and  trappings  were  made  in 
Alexandria.  The  fast  Roman  youth 
used  Alexandrian  slang  ;  the  comic 
actor,  whose  jokes  set  the  theater  in 
a  roar,  was  an  Alexandrian ;  the 
street  tunes,  hummed  up  and 
down  the  Via  Sacra,  originated  in 
Alexandria  ;  and  no  breed  of  fight¬ 
ing-cocks  equaled  those  of  Alex¬ 
andria. 

2  The  policy  of  Rome  had  filled 
the  city  with  beggars  and  noisy 
mobs ;  in  Alexandria  idleness  was 
a  crime.  Had  Rome  encouraged 
agriculture  and  cultivated  the  cam- 
pagnia  with  half  the  assiduity  of 
the  Egyptians,  she  would  not  have 
been  obliged  to  send  to  Egypt  for 
corn. 


3  Lepsius  (Bohn  ed.),  p.  369.  In 
Egypt  there  are  no  destructive 
floods  nor  freshets.  In  Egypt  no 
rain  ever  falls.  But  when  the 
bright  dog-star,  Sirius,  rises  with 
the  sun,  the  mysterious  Nile  begins 
to  swell,  a  calm  and  tranquil  inun¬ 
dation  covers  the  land,  at  once 
watering  and,  by  the  slime  de¬ 
posited,  enriching  it.  If,  when  the 
waters  have  reached  their  height, 
the  Nileometer,  which  measures  the 
depth  of  the  inundation,  indicates 
eight  cubits,  the  harvest  at  best  will 
be  a  scanty  one;  but  if  it  reaches 
fourteen  cubits,  the  harvest  will  be 
plentiful.  Thus,  before  a  single 
seed  was  planted,  while  the  waters 
still  cover  the  fields  and  gardens, 
the  crops  of  the  Egyptian  husband¬ 
man  were  hypothecated  in  the  mar¬ 
kets  of  Rome,  Athens,  Rhodes, 
Ephesus,  Smyrna,  etc.  P.  Victor 
says  that  Augustus  imported  yearly 
from  Egypt  twenty  million  bushels 
of  corn,  and  in  Justinian’s  time  eighty 
millions  were  sent  to  Constantinople. 


204 


APOLLONIUS 


The  aspect  of  nature,  the  perpetual  environment  of 
increase  and  decay,  the  sublime  spectacle  of  birth 
through  the  fructifying  rays  of  the  divine  sun,  personi¬ 
fied  in  the  all-wise  Serapis,1  was  the  consummation  of 
eternal  truth.2 

The  two  main  streets  of  Alexandria,  which  crossed 
each  other  at  right  angles,  one  extending  east  and  west,3 
from  the  gate  of  the  Necropolis  to  the  Canopic  Gate, 
and  the  other  from  the  great  port  to  Lake  Mareotis, 
were  thronged  incessantly  with  tradesmen,  Arabs, 
priests,  beasts  of  burden,  and  foreigners  of  every  race, 
and  from  every  nation  under  the  sun.  The  dark  Nu¬ 
bian,  the  black  Ethiopian,  the  swarthy  Jew,  the  sun- 
browned  Arab,  Greek,  Persian,  Hindoo,  and  Malay 
pass  through  the  gates  from  dawn  to  dark.  The  crier 
stands  upon  the  steps  of  the  temple  of  Serapis,  and  calls 
to  the  heedless  crowd,  “  All  ye  who  are  of  clean  hands 
and  pure  hearts,  come  to  the  sacrifice  ”  (celebration  of 
the  mysteries  of  Isis).  Statues  of  great  men,  and 
greater  gods  and  goddesses,  adorn  every  street.  Here 
is  the  famous  temple  of  Osiris-Apis,  there  the  more 
famous  one  of  Serapis,4  on  your  right  the  temple  of 
Ammon- Ra,  glittering  with  gold  in  the  sunlight.  All 


1  Lepsius  (Bohn  ed. ),  435. 

2  Here  this  divinity  was  wor¬ 
shiped  as  a  bull  —  not  an  image, 
but  a  living  animal.  It  was  the 
oracle  which  uttered  the  famous  re¬ 
sponse  to  Hannibal, —  Aij3ou>aa 
■Kpoyei  (3ottoa  'Avvi(3aX  asp. a?,  from 
which  Hannibal  concluded  that  he 

should  be  victorious,  and  return 

safely  from  Rome,  and  die  a  natural 
death,  and  be  buried  in  Lybia.  The 


real  meaning  was  not  discovered 
until  his  defeat  and  suicide. 

3  Conflict  between  Religion  and 
Science  (Draper),  p.  18. 

4  Isis  and  Serapis  had  a  joint 
temple  at  Rome.  The  priests  wrere 
called  Isiaci.  They  abstained  from 
mutton  and  pork,  wore  clean  linen 
clothingand  wooden  andpaper  shoes, 
used  no  salt ;  lest  they  might  violate 
their  chastity  they  drank  no  wine. 


OF  TYANA . 


205 


Egypt  adored  the  sun,  the  good  god  Ra,  and  a  perpet¬ 
ual  procession  of  worshipers  swept  through  the  corridor 
of  his  somber  temple.  On  your  left  the  Claudian 
Museum,  whither  flocked  the  students  of  the  world  ;  also 
the  Soma,  which  held  the  bodies  of  Alexandria  and  the 
Ptolemies,  and  the  enormous  library  founded  by  Deme¬ 
trius  during  his  exile  from  Athens.  Now  a  procession 
of  maidens  (nuns)  from  the  temple  of  Ceres  and  Proser¬ 
pine  obstructs  the  travel  of  the  main  thoroughfare,  and 
the  white-robed  priestesses,  with  the  sacred  basket, 
emblem  of  plenty,  cry  out  as  they  pass  along,  “  Sinners 
away,  keep  your  eyes  on  the  ground,  keep  your  eyes 
on  the  ground,”  for  no  sinner  was  permitted  to  look 
upon  these  holy  women  and  preserve  his  sight.  And 
on  the  left  is  the  temple  of  Neptune,  a  kind  of  commer¬ 
cial  exchange,  crowded  with  boisterous  merchants  and 
brokers  in  a  delirium  of  the  corn  exchange.1  Damis, 
bewildered,  declares  “  there  are  more  gods  than  men  in 
Alexandria.” 

“  And  this,”  soliloquized  Apollonius,  “  is  Alexandria, 
famous  in  all  learning,  the  mother  of  wisdom,  and 
beautiful  from  the  hands  of  Grecian  architects,  whom 
Epiphanes,  without  rank  and  without  treasures,  de¬ 
livered  by  a  stroke  of  genius  into  the  hands  of  Rome 
to  save  it  from  Lycia  and  Macedon  ”  (b.  c.  30). 2  The 

1  To  the  speculator  of  Alexandria  420;  The  Monumental  History  of 
corn  was  everything,  and  an  advance  Egypt ,  as  recorded  on  the  Ruins  of 
or  decline  in  the  corn  market  was  her  Temples,  Palaces,  and  Tombs, 
attended  with  results  as  disastrous  by  William  Osborne,  2  vols.  (1854), 
and  with  an  excitement  unparalleled  vol.  ii.  p.  372. 

in  the  most  exciting  days  of  Wall  2  History  of  Egypt,  from  the 
Street;  every  language  on  earth  was  Earliest  Times  till  the  Conquest  by 
spoken  here. — Ancient  Commerce,  the  Arabs,  by  Samuel  Sharpe,  2  vols. 
etc.  (Le  Pain,  London,  1831),  p.  (London,  1859),  vol.  ii.  p.  74. 


20  6 


APOLLONIUS 


esteem  in  which  the  people  of  Alexandria  held  Apollo¬ 
nius  was  reciprocated,  for  he  loved  Egypt,  next  to  his 
native  Greece,1  for  her  philosophy,2  her  people,  her 
institutions,  her  chivalry.  The  heartless  treatment  of 
women  in  Rome  contrasted  marvelously  with  that  of 
Egypt  and  Greece.  Woman  was  the  merest  slave  of 
brutal  caprice  in  Rome.  She  ruled  and  was  honored  in 
Egypt  and  Greece,  no  door  was  barred  against  her,  she 
could  mount  the  throne,  had  her  part  in  the  priesthood, 
and  was  a  queen  in  every  house.  The  great  goddess 
of  Greece  and  Egypt  was  a  mother; 3  of  Rome,  a 
virgin.  Soon  after  his  arrival  at  Alexandria,  Apollonius 
heard  of  the  condemnation  and  suicide  of  Tigellinus, 
public  procurator  under  Nero. 

He  was  a  frequent  visitor  at  the  temples  of  Osiris- Apis 
and  Serapis,  which  were  in  the  west  quarter  of  the  city,4 
but  refused  to  sacrifice,  declaring  that  the  whole  race 
of  prophets,  from  Janus  to  Clytius  and  Melampus,  have 
been  mistaken  in  proclaiming  so  many  excellences 
the  product  of  divine  fire  ;  and  he  rebuked  the  Egyp¬ 
tians  as  unskilled  in  knowledge  of  divine  matters,  and 
in  the  potentiality  of  their  gods.5  The  worship  of 


1  Eusebius  says  :  “  By  the  Egyp¬ 
tians  he  was  looked  upon  as  the 
favorite  of  heaven ;  he  claimed  the 
power  of  working  miracles  by  his 
magical  skill,  and  of  foretelling 
events  by  his  knowledge  of  astrol¬ 
ogy.  In  the  Thebaid  he  was  so  far 
honored  that  at  the  bidding  of  the 
priests  one  of  the  sacred  trees  spoke 
to  him,  as  had  been  their  custom 
from  of  old  with  favorites,  and  ad¬ 
dressed  him  as  a  teacher  from 
heaven.” — Eusebius  against  Hiero- 
cles,  lib.  vi. 


2  The  ethical  school  of  Alexandria 
was  founded  by  Zeno,  the  stoic. 

3  Female  Warriors,  Memorials  of 
Female  Valor,  etc.,  by  Mrs.  Need¬ 
ham,  vol.  i.  p.  25. 

4  Destroyed,  A.  D.  389. 

5  Many  Christians,  it  is  said,  sac¬ 
rificed  at  this  temple,  and  those  who 
call  themselves  Christ’s  bishops  are 
devotees  of  Serapis.  Pausanias  says : 
“Qu’ilyavoit  dans  plusieurs  villes 
de  la  Grece  des  temples  dedies  a  Isis, 
a  Serapis,  et  a  d’autres  Divinites 
Egyptiennes.” — Caylus,  p.  118. 


OF  TYANA. 


207 


Serapis1  was  coeval  with  the  foundation  of  Alexandria, 
and  was  introduced  from  Sinope  by  the  first  Ptolemy. 
The  statue  of  Serapis  was  obtained  by  force  from  Syth- 
otherius,  and  speedily  did  the  Sinopic  god  become  the 
great  god  of  his  adopted  country.  Macrobius  says 
( Saturnaliorum ,  1-20) :  “  The  city  of  Alexandria  pays 
almost  frantic  worship  to  Serapis  and  Isis.  Yet  all  this 
veneration  they  maintain  is  but  offered  to  the  sun, 
Ammon-Ra,2  under  that  title  by  their  placing  the  corn 
measure  upon  his  head.”3  In  the  second  century  the 
syncretistic  sects  that  had  sprung  up  in  Alexandria, 
the  very  hot-bed  of  gnosticism,  found,  or  pretended 
they  had  found,  in  Serapis  a  prophetic  type  of  Christ 
as  the  lord  and  creator  of  all,  and  judge  of  the  living 
and  the  dead.  Thus,  at  length  Serapis  had  become 
merely  the  idea  of  the  Supreme  Being,  whose  manifes¬ 
tation  upon  the  earth  was  the  Christ  In  this  manner 
we  are  to  understand  the  curious  letter  of  Hadrian 
(about  A.  D.  130),  preserved  by  Vopiscus  :  “Those  who 
worship  Serapis  are  also  Christians ;  even  those  who 
style  themselves  bishops  of  Crestos  are  devoted  to 
Serapis.”4  The  primitive  form  of  this  worship  was 
simply  adoration  of  the  Nile,  without  the  overflow  of 
which  Egypt  must  become  a  desert.5  They  also  wor¬ 
shiped  the  sacred  cross  (Nileometer),  the  symbol  of 
life  and  regeneration,  and  in  these  temples  —  Osiris- Apis 


1  Symbolical  Language  of  Ancient 
Art ,  etc.  (Knight),  p.  104. 

2  Lepsius  ed.,  1853),  p.  248. 

3  There  was  a  more  ancient  tem¬ 

ple  of  Serapis  at  Memphis;  conse¬ 

quently  the  importation  from  Sinope 
may  have  some  element  of  romance 
in  it. 


4  Hadrian  to  his  brother  Servi- 
anus.  Xp7]0T0<;  (Chrestos  or  Cres¬ 
tos),  Heathen  Records  (Dr.  Giles), 

p.  88. 

5  Mythology  and  Fables  (Banier), 
i.  492 ;  Was  Christ  a  God  ?  Con¬ 
clusions  drawn  from  Apostolic  writ¬ 
ings  (Mensinga),  p.  8. 


208 


APOLLONIUS 


and  Serapis  —  was  also  associated  the  worship  of  the 
fructifying  sun,  Ammon-Ra,  and  these  were  the  great 
gods  of  Egypt.  *  The  Nile  was  “  the  water  of  life,”  and 
was  sanctified  by  the  sign  of  the  cross,  to  the  mystical 
“  washing  away  of  all  sin.” 

The  identity  of  Aesculapius  with  the  sun-god  Serapis 
requires  no  further  demonstration  than  that  he  was  the 
son  of  Apollo  and  Coronis  (sun-gods.)1  In  a  statue  of 
gold  and  ivory,  at  Epidaurus  (now  in  Rome),  he  is 
represented  with  a  long  beard,  and  his  head  is  sur¬ 
rounded  with  sun-rays.  He  had  temples  at  Antioch, 
Smyrna,  Pergamus,  Thessaly,  and  Cos.  His  worship 
relates  essentially  to  the  mysteries  or  sacred  rites.  All 
his  temples  were  sanctuaries,  which  only  those  might 
approach  who  had  undergone  a  mystic  purification.2 
Not  inappropriate  is  the  designation  of  Aesculapius  as 
the  “  sun  of  righteousness,  with  healing  on  his  wings,” 
for  that  was  his  description  in  old  mythologies.3 


1  Cf.  Vestiges  of  Spirit- History  of 
Man  (Dunlap),  p.  37,  etc.  See 
edict  of  Constantine,  Corp.  Jur.  Cio. 
Codicis ,  lib.  iii.  tit.  12;  he  uses  the 
words  “  Sacred  day  of  the  Sun 
(God).” 

2 Symbolic  Language  of  Ancient 
Art  (Knight),  p.  4. 

3  One  of  the  most  remarkable 
edifices  at  Alexandria  was  the  Sera- 
pion,  or  temple  of  Serapis.  The 
worship  of  the  god  and  patron  of 
sailors  was  introduced  from  Sinope 
by  Ptolemy  I.,  doubtless  not  with¬ 
out  a  special  object.  The  temple 
stood  in  the  quarter  Rhacotis,  near 
the  “  Haven  of  Fortunate  Return,” 
and  art  had  exhausted  her  resources 


to  make  it  one  of  the  most  splendid 
on  the  face  of  the  globe.  It  was 
erected  on  the  summit  of  an  artificial 
mound,  raised  one  hundred  steps 
above  the  adjacent  parts  of  the  city. 

Two  hundred  and  seventy-one 
years  after  this  period  (a.  d.  69), 
Constantine  made  Byzantium  the 
capital  of  his  empire ;  he  wished, 
also,  to  make  it  the  literary  "center 
of  the  world,  and  his  influence  was 
thrown  against  Alexandria.  Its  mu¬ 
seum  was  placed  under  the  super¬ 
vision  of  the  clergy,  and  decline 
was  the  immediate  result.  Most 
of  the  savants  left  the  city  in  conse¬ 
quence,  and  sought  safety  elsewhere. 
The  Emperor  Julian,  however,  on 


OF  TYANA . 


209 


In  later  times  he  was  known  principally  in  his  char¬ 
acter  as  Bacchus,  and  is  now  regarded  as  the  god  of 
wine  and  reveling.  But  in  earlier  days  the  views  taken 


coming  into  power  (a.  d.  361)  sub¬ 
jected  the  Christians  to  some  re¬ 
strictions,  and  tried  to  induce  the 
learned  pagans  to  return.  lie 
succeeded  in  partly  reviving  Alex¬ 
andria’s  now  rapidly  sinking  in¬ 
stitutions  ;  but  his  reign  was  too 
short  to  produce  lasting  results. 
After  his  death  the  spirit  of  oppo¬ 
sition  between  Christians  and  pa¬ 
gans  became  more  bitter  than  ever. 
The  temple  of  Serapis  was  the 
rallying-place  of  the  latter.  There 
was  a  general  belief  that  the  annual 
overflow  of  the  Nile  and  the  pros¬ 
perity  of  Egypt  depended  upon  the 
favor  of  this  god.  This  restrained 
for  a  while  the  Christians,  who  were 
more  than  half-believers  in  the 
potency  of  Serapis,  from  attacking 
his  temple  ;  nor  did  the  pagans 
neglect  to  make  the  most  of  this 
superstition  to  their  own  advantage. 
Several  fanatics  appeared  upon  the 
scene,  who  endeavored  to  maintain 
the  worship  of  idols  ;  among  whom 
the  most  conspicuous  were  Antonius 
and  Olympus.  The  former  was  a 
student  of  mystical  philosophy,  and 
vindicated  with  great  zeal  the  wor¬ 
ship  of  the  heathen  gods  (fourth 
century).  He  was  constantly  at¬ 
tended  by  a  crowd  of  young  men, 
drawn  to  him  by  his  character  and 
eloquence.  The  latter  is  repre¬ 
sented  by  Suidas  as  a  “man  of 
wonderful  acquirements,  noble  na¬ 

27 


ture,  and  incredible  eloquence.” 
On  this  occasion  he  was  chosen  by 
the  adherents  of  the  old  religion  in 
Alexandria  as  teacher  of  divinity  in 
the  temple  of  Serapis.  Great  num¬ 
bers  flocked  to  him,  eager  to  be 
instructed  in  the  religious  rites  and 
mysteries  of  their  ancestors,  for 
there  were  not  wanting  those  who 
attributed  the  misfortunes  of  the 
times  to  the  neglect  of  the  worship 
of  the  gods. 

While  these  things  were  going 
on  in  Alexandria  several  imperial 
edicts  were  proclaimed  throughout 
the  empire  ordering  the  destruction 
of  the  heathen  temples.  Theophilus 
was  at  this  time  (a.  d.  386)  the 
Christian  archbishop  of  the  city. 
He  is  characterized  as  the  “  perpet¬ 
ual  enemy  of  peace  and  virtue;  a 
bold,  bad  man,  whose  hands  were 
alternately  polluted  with  gold  and 
blood.”  With  the  assistance  of  the 
imperial  governor  and  soldiers  he 
made  an  attack  on  the  pagans,  who, 
under  the  leadership  of  Olympus, 
had  provisioned  and  fortified  them¬ 
selves  in  the  temple  of  Serapis.  A 
formal  siege  was  begun,  and  un¬ 
heard-of  cruelties  were  perpetrated, 
in  which  the  pagans,  may  be,  outdid, 
if  possible,  their  opponents.  In  the 
year  389  a.  D.  an  armistice  was  en¬ 
tered  into  for  the  purpose  of  await¬ 
ing  the  imperial  mandate,  which  was 
to  decide  the  fate  of  the  temple. 


210 


APOLLONIUS 


were  different;  yet  the  change  was  not  without  reason. 
“  The  Prince  of  Life  ”  is  the  giver  of  health ;  the 
Agathodaemon  'and  the  “  Cup  of  Blessings,”  wreathed 


When  the  rescript  for  the  destruc¬ 
tion  of  the  idols  in  Alexandria  was 
received,  the  pagans,  to  avoid  the 
fury  of  the  Christians,  hastily  took 
flight.  The  latter,  with  loud  shouts 
of  exultation,  proceeded  anew  with 
the  work  of  destruction.  The  god 
was  broken  in  pieces,  the  works  of 
art  destroyed,  the  building  sacked, 
and  only  the  strength  of  its  walls 
bade  defiance  to  the  zeal  of  the  be¬ 
siegers.  The  building  was  after¬ 
ward  repaired  and  converted  into  a 
monastery.  We  shall  probably  never 
know  what  works  of  art  perished 
here ;  but  we  do  know  that  the 
splendid  library  of  three  hundred 
thousand  volumes  was  scattered  and 
destroyed.  This  was  the  end  of  the 
great  library  of  Pergamus  and  the 
initiation  of  a  regime  which  ignored 
learning  as  a  basis  of  evil,  and  the 
decline  of  Alexandria  began,  and  its 
destruction  completed,  under  a  re¬ 
ligion  based  upon  ignorance,  super¬ 
stition,  and  fraud,  unparalleled  in 
the  record  of  religious  fervor ;  and 
under  the  same  disgraceful  regime 
sank  all  the  cities  of  the  East.  The 
glory  of  the  East  was  doomed. 
Christianity  possessed  but  one  qual¬ 
ity  upon  which  its  perpetuity  could 
depend,  and  that  was  brute  force, 
and  well  its  masters  for  ten  centuries 
have  wielded  this  power. 

The  tragic  death  of  Hypatia,  A.  b. 
415  (cf  Tillemont’s  Memoirs;  also 


Charles  Kingsley’s  Hypatia ),  is  an 
episode  in  the  literary  history  of 
Alexandria  that  must  not  be  omit¬ 
ted  from  the  few  scattered  notices 
we  possess  of  its  library  and  mu¬ 
seum.  This  event,  the  memory  of 
which  genius  has  rendered  imper¬ 
ishable  in  painting  and  story,  gives 
us  an  insight  into  one  of  the  most 
unfortunate  periods  of  the  world’s 
history,  and  shows  us  what  a  pre¬ 
carious  lease  of  life  the  literature  of 
antiquity  had  in  the  hands  of  those 
who  were  day  by  day  rising  into 
power.  And  it  is  painful  to  recall 
that  our  own  age  is  not  entirely  de¬ 
void  of  the  same  intolerant  spirit. 
Hypatia  was  the  daughter  of  the 
last-mentioned  member  of  the  Alex¬ 
andrian  museum,  the  celebrated  phi¬ 
losopher,  stoic,  and  mathematician, 
Theon ;  she  was  one  of  the  most  ac¬ 
complished  women  known  to  his¬ 
tory, her  father’s  only  child, and  early 
manifested  deep  interest  in  philo¬ 
sophical  and  mathematical  studies. 
He  instructed  her  with  the  greatest 
care.  During  her  stay  at  Athens, 
which  was  still  a  noted  seat  of  Greek 
culture,  she  became  a  convert  to  the 
third  Neo-Platonic  school,  which 
was  then  striving  to  unite  the  dog¬ 
mas  of  Plato  and  Aristotle  for  the 
purpose  of  stemming  the  current  of 
that  religion  which  was  confessedly 
and  boastfully  without  learning, 
without  a  philosophy,  and  without 


OF  TYANA. 


21 1 


by  serpents,  were  alike  symbols  of  both.  The  fact  has 
been  remarked  that  there  was  a  common  knowledge 
which  the  ^Esculapian  initiates  were  free  to  disseminate, 


a  morality,  based  entirely  upon  the 
passions  and  emotions  of  men. 
Upon  her  return  to  Alexandria  she 
became  a  teacher,  where  her  elo¬ 
quence  and  wisdom,  her  youthful 
beauty,  and  modesty  awakened  such 
enthusiasm  that  her  lecture-room 
could  scarcely  contain  her  eager 
disciples,  whilst  the  first  families  of 
the  city  sought  her  friendship. 

This  philosophy  was  particularly 
obnoxious  to  the  ignorant  Chris¬ 
tians.  Its  intellectual  appeals  ren¬ 
dered  it  the  mightiest  opponent  to 
the  new  religion.  Hypatia,  in  so 
great  favor  with  the  learned  and  in¬ 
fluential  of  Alexandria,  was  the 
thorn  in  the  flesh  of  the  zealous 
and  fiery  Cyril,  who  happened  to 
be  just  then  at  enmity  with  Orestes, 
the  governor  of  the  city.  About 
this  time  a  certain  Hierax,  a  noted 
teacher  among  the  Christians,  was 
murdered,  and  the  murderer  could 
not  be  found.  Gradually  a  report 
spread  through  the  city  that  the 
female  philosopher,  by  her  secret 
influence,  prevented  a  reconciliation 
between  the  governor  and  the 
bishop,  and  that  she  was  probably 
the  cause  of  her  opponent’s  death 
by  means  of  bribed  bandits.  One 
day  during  Lent  a  crowd  of  fanatics, 
under  the  head  of  a  certain  reader 
named  Peter,  collected  around  her 
dwelling.  She  was  not  at  home, 
but  soon  appeared,  sitting  in  her 


chariot.  The  crowd,  who  had  mur¬ 
der  in  their  hearts,  ran  to  meet  her, 
forced  her  to  descend,  stripped  her 
naked  in  the  street,  dragged  her  into 
a  church,  and  literally  tore  her  in 
pieces.  Her  quivering  limbs  were 
trailed  through  the  streets  by  these 
monsters  and  finally  thrown  into  a 
fire.  No  one,  even  among  Chris¬ 
tians  then  or  now,  doubts  the  holy 
Cyril’s  connivance  at  this  deed.  The 
investigation  of  the  riot  was  dis¬ 
continued  by  the  timely  interposi¬ 
tion  of  gifts.  This  event  took  place 
about  the  year  A.  D.  415. — ATational 
Quarterly ,  December,  1875 ;  His¬ 
tory  of  the  Conflict  of  Religion  and 
Science  (Draper),  p.  55  (Appleton, 
1875) ;  Isis  Unveiled:  A  Master- 
Key  to  the  Mysteries  of  Ancient  and 
Modern  Science  and  Theology ,  by 
H.  P.  Blavatsky,  vol.  ii.  p.  336. 

The  worst  feature  of  this  whole 
transaction  is  probably  that  some 
Christian  writers  have  defended  her 
character  with  enigmatic  praise,  and 
intimate  that  her  death  was  caused 
by  a  mob  of  infuriated  citizens  and 
not  Christians,  and  that  there  may 
have  been  some  apparent  justifica¬ 
tion  for  the  violence  committed 
upon  her.  This  damnable  method 
of  warping  history  and  creating 
public  opinion  is  purely  Chris¬ 
tian.  She  was  clubbed  to  death  by 
Christian  monks. — Draper’s  Con¬ 
flict,  p.  55. 


212 


APOLLONIUS 


as  Hippocrates  did;  and  an  esoteric  wisdom  which 
must  not  be  communicated.1 

While  the  most  violent  revolutionary  movements 
were  transpiring  in  Rome,  matters  were  daily  growing 
worse  in  the  Judean  capital.  Vespasian,  who  had  been 
sent  by  Nero  (a.  D.  66)  to  quell  these  disturbances, 
had  remained  an  idle  spectator  to  the  Judean  insurrec¬ 
tion,  as  if  to  demonstrate  to  the  world  the  utter 
unfitness  of  the  Jews  to  govern  themselves.  Not  so 
indifferent,  however,  was  he  to  affairs  at  Rome ;  for  no 


1  “  There  can  be  no  doubt,”  says 
C.  W.  King,  M.  A.,  in  The  Gnostics 
and  their  Remains ,  Ancient  and 
Mediceval ,  p.  68,  “  that  the  head  of 
Serapis,  marked,  as  the  face  is,  by  a 
grave  and  pensive  majesty,  supplied 
the  first  idea  for  the  conventional 
portrait  of  the  Saviour.”  Eusebius 
and  Athanasius  state  that  when 
Joseph  and  Mary  arrived  in  Egypt 
they  took  up  their  abode  in  the  city 
of  Thebais,  in  which  was  a  superb 
temple  of  Serapis.  On  their  going 
into  the  temple  all  the  statues  fell 
flat  on  their  faces  to  the  infant  Sav¬ 
iour.  This  story  is  also  told  by  the 
Evangelium  Infantice.  Adrian  sup¬ 
poses  that  the  Christian  worship  of 
Egypt  was  the  worship  of  Serapis 
( Isis  Unveiled ,  vol.  ii.  p.  336).  It 
may  be  collected  from  the  many  dis¬ 
putes  that  no  certain  image  and  rep¬ 
resentation  of  the  form  and  features 
of  Christ  has  been  handed  down  by 
tradition.  There  is  also  much  weight 
in  the  remark  that  the  most  ancient 
effigies  are  stamped  with  a  Greek 
or  Roman  character  both  in  physiog¬ 
nomy  and  costume,  without  any 
trace  of  the  Arabian  or  Israelite 


style.  Thus,  before  the  Byzantine 
style  fixed  a  la  Grecque  the  face  and 
costume  of  Jesus,  the  paintings  of 
the  Roman  Catacombs  gave  him  a 
Roman  face  and  clothed  him  with 
the  toga  and  the  pallium.  Dating 
from  these  productions,  there  have 
been  two  principal  types, —  the  type 
of  the  Western  church  and  the  type 
of  the  Eastern,  varied  to  infinity  by 
degrees  of  civilization,  by  race,  by 
manners,  and  by  clime.  **  The 
Greeks,”  says  Photus,  “  think  that 
he  became  a  man  after  their  image ; 
the  Romans,  that  he  had  the  feat¬ 
ures  of  a  Roman  ;  the  Indians,  that 
of  an  Indian ;  the  Ethiopians  made 
him  black.”  The  manner  in  which 
sacred  subjects  have  been  travestied 
is  amusing  and  absurd.  Rembrandt 
in  one  of  his  pictures  painted  Abra¬ 
ham  a  burgess  of  his  time,  and  the 
Messiah  a  burgomaster  of  Saardam. 
In  old  paintings  of  the  fall  of  Adam 
we  find  the  forbidden  fruit  varying 
according  to  the  country.  In  Nor¬ 
mandy  it  was  the  classic  apple,  in 
Burgundy  a  bunch  of  grapes,  in 
Portugal  the  fig  and  orange,  and 
in  America  the  guava. 


OF  TYANA. 


213 


sooner  had  he  heard  of  the  death  of  Nero,  than  he  felt 
a  sudden  aspiration  higher  than  quietly  watching  two 
factions  of  miserable  Jews  destroy  each  other.  His 
army  proclaimed  him  emperor,  and  he  immediately  set 
out  for  Rome  by  the  way  of  Alexandria.  Before  he 
reached  Alexandria,  however,  his  claims  had  been 
advocated  by  the  philosophers,  Dion,  Euphrates,  and 
Apollonius,1  who  had  been  useful  to  him  in  their 
efforts  to  secure  the  allegiance  pf  the  Egyptians. 
Tiberius  Alexander,  prefect  of  Egypt,  appointed  by 
Nero,  was  the  first  to  proclaim  in  favor  of  Vespasian,2 
and  Apollonius  was  also  wholly  devoted  to  his  service,3 
for  which  the  emperor  repaid  him  by  flattery  as  well  as 
by  more  tangible  favors.4  As  Vespasian  approached 


1  Apollonius  was  the  most  cele¬ 
brated  of  these  philosophers.  He 
was  one  of  the  first  who  gained 
eminence  from  the  study  of  Eastern 
philosophy,  which  was  then  rising 
in  the  opinion  of  the  Greeks.  He 
was  master  of  the  fabled  wisdom 
of  the  magi  of  Babylon,  and  of  the 
gymnosophists  of  India,  and  he  had 
come  to  Egypt  to  compare  this 
mystic  philosophy  with  that  of  the 
hermits  of  Ethiopia  and  the  The- 
bais.  By  the  Egyptians  he  was 
looked  upon  as  the  favored  of 
heaven.  He  claimed  the  power  of 
working  miracles  by  his  magical 
arts,  and  of  foretelling  events  by 
his  knowledge  of  astrology.  And 
if  we  could  believe  the  wonderful 
stories  told  of  him  by  his  biogra¬ 
pher,  we  would  not  wonder  at  Hier- 
ocles  and  other  pagans  comparing 
his  miracles  to  those  of  Jesus.  So 
easy  was  the  working  of  miracles, 


and  of  so  little  consequence  was  this 
accomplishment,  that  his  pretensions 
were  not  at  all  doubted  by  even 
those  who  had  the  good  sense  to 
detect  the  fallacy  of  his  philosophy ; 
and  by  the  author  of  the  Book  of 
Revelation,  when  Vespasian  is  called 
the  beast,  Apollonius  is  called  the 
false  prophet  who  wrought  miracles 
in  the  presence  of  the  beast. — His¬ 
tory  of  Egypt  from  the  Earliest 
Times  to  the  Conquest  by  the  A  rabs 
(a.  d.  640),  by  Samuel  Sharp,  2  vols. 
(1859). 

2  Sharp’s  Egypt,  vol.  ii.  p.  136. 

3  Cf.  Tacitus ;  also  Time  and 
Faith,  vol.  ii.  p.  349,  etc. 

4  Vespasian  made  use  of  them  in 
furthering  his  political  plans. — Apol¬ 
lonius  de  Tyane,  sa  Vie,  ses  Voyages, 
ses  Prodiges  (Chassang),  p.  247; 
Tacitus,  History,  lib.  iv.  p.  60 ; 
Eusebius  against  Hierocles,  lib.  v. 
p.  168. 


214 


APOLLONIUS 


the  gates  of  Alexandria,  the  sacred  order  of  priest¬ 
hood,  the  civil  magistrates,  the  deputies  from  the  pre¬ 
fectures,  and  the  philosophers  and  sages  all  went  out 
to  meet  him.1  But  no  part  of  the  pompous  procession 
engaged  the  attention  of  Apollonius,  who  was  teach¬ 
ing  philosophy  in  the  temple  at  the  time ;  he  did  not 
even  leave  his  school  to  wait  upon  the  emperor.  Ves¬ 
pasian  received  the  delegation  with  a  short  speech, 
which  was  at  once  gracious  and  benign,  and,  looking 
about  him,  inquired  after  the  Tyanean.2  Damis  in¬ 
formed  him  that  Apollonius  was  in  the  temple.  “Then,” 
replied  he,  “  thither  I  will  repair,  that  I  may  offer  my 
prayers  to  the  gods  and  converse  with  the  Tyanean.” 
After  the  accustomed  sacrifices  for  the  past  preserva¬ 
tion  and  future  welfare  of  the  emperor  were  performed, 
and  the  deputies  of  the  various  cities  represented  at 
Alexandria  recognized  and  addressed,  Vespasian  turned 
to  Apollonius  and  said:  “To  you,  Apollonius,  more 
than  any  other  man,  am  I  indebted  for  my  present  suc¬ 
cess.  I  know  your  participation  in  the  present  revolu¬ 
tion,  and  to  you  I  shall  look  for  advice.”3  “The  empire,” 
replied  Apollonius,  “  has  long  been  in  a  disturbed  and 
unsettled  state ;  security  of  the  person  or  estate,  the 
inherent  right  of  every  Roman  citizen,  has  engrossed 
but  little  attention  from  the  masters  of  the  Roman 
people, — they  have  rather  regarded  them  as  their  legal 
prey.”  “What  think  you,”  asked  Vespasian,  “of  the 

1  Apollonius  de  Tyane  (Chassang),  here,  as  in  many  other  instances,  to 

p.  209.  be  the  mere  tool  of  political  fac- 

2  Vie  cP Apollonius  de  Tyane,  par  tions.” — History  of  the  Christian 
Le  Grand  D’Aussy,  vol.  ii.  p.  118.  Church  in  the  First  Century ,  vol.  i. 

3  John  Henry  Newman,  D.  D.,  p.  345.  That  is  a  most  un warrant- 
says  that  “  Apollonius  was  found  able  and  undeserving  charge. 


OF  TYANA. 


2I5 


government  of  Nero  ?”  Apollonius  replied  that  “  Nero 
had  disgraced  his  authority  by  merciless  rigor,  and 
then  rendered  himself  doubly  culpable  by  criminal 
remissness ;  that  flagrant  acts  of  licentiousness  had 
become  a  part  of  the  administration,  and  had  perverted 
the  authority  and  demoralized  the  dignity  of  the  state  ; 1 
the  most  abominable  lusts,  the  most  extravagant  lux¬ 
ury,  the  most  shameful  rapaciousness,  and  the  most 
inhuman  cruelty  constitute  the  general  characteristics 
of  this  detestable  tyrant, —  all  of  which  have  entered 
into  his  methods  in  the  administration  of  public  affairs. 
With  no  settled  policy,  he  has  swayed  from  childish 
indulgence  to  implacable  revenge.”  “Then  you  think,” 
said  Vespasian,  “that  an  emperor  should  observe  the 
golden  mean  in  the  government  of  an  empire  ?  ”  “  An 
emperor  should  at  all  times,”  replied  Apollonius,  “  be 
equitable — that  equity  defined  by  the  gods.”  “  Grant, 
O  Jupiter,”  said  Vespasian,  raising  his  eyes,  “that  I 
may  govern  and  be  governed  equitably  and  wisely.” 
And,  turning  to  the  Egyptian  delegates,  he  said, 
“  Draw  from  me  as  you  draw  from  the  Nile.”2  And 
then  addressing  Apollonius  in  an  undertone,  “  In  my 
present  understanding  I  wish  to  act  under  the  guidance 
of  the  gods,  and  on  you  I  chiefly  found  my  hopes  of 
success,  as  I  know  you  are  well  versed  in  all  knowledge 
relating  to  things  divine,  and  for  that  reason  I  make 
you  my  friend  and  counselor.  And  if  omens  favorable 
to  my  cause  are  given  from  the  gods,  I  will  go  on ;  if 
they  are  not  propitious  to  me  and  the  Roman  people, 
I  will  stop  where  I  am,  for  I  care  not  to  engage  in  any 
enterprise  unsanctioned  by  heaven.” 

1  Suetonius,  Nero.  2  Apollonius  de  Tyane  (Chassang),  p.  260. 


21 6 


APOLLONIUS 


After  this  conversation  Apollonius,  like  one  inspired, 
said,  “  O  Jupiter  Capitolinus,1  who  art  supreme  judge 
and  director  in  the  present  crisis  of  affairs,  keep  thy¬ 
self  for  Vespasian  and  Vespasian  for  thee.”2  And 
then,  turning  to  the  emperor,  he  said  :  “  Remember  that 
the  virtue  of  a  nation  depends  more  upon  the  mana¬ 
gers  of  it  than  upon  the  individuals  who  compose  it. 
Men,  from  the  most  barbarous  ages  to  the  present 
time,  have  ever  been  composed  of  the  same  numerical 
clay ;  law  and  cultivation  have  made  the  distinction 
among  them.  That  proverb  of  villainy  and  lawless¬ 
ness,  Nero,  was  the  victim  of  a  set  of  surroundings 
which  he  had  inherited ;  and  as  the  manners  of  men 
are  almost  invariably  modified  by  the  nearest  patterns, 
so  it  had  been  with  him.  The  original  source  of  na¬ 
tional  virtue  or  vice  can  be  traced  to  the  throne  whence 
in  rivulets  it  flows  through  all  of  the  inferior  channels 
of  the  body  politic.  The  rulers  are  they  who  carry 
the  great  burden  of  Atlas  upon  their  shoulders,  and 
upon  them  fall  heavier  penalties  of  misconduct  than 
upon  the  ruled.  If,  after  thoroughly  weighing  the 
matter,  you  still  feel  like  accepting  this  great  charge, 
go  on  with  the  work  which  you  have  so  nobly  begun. 
The  temple  burnt  in  Rome  yesterday  by  impious  hands 
*  the  fates  ’  have  made  it  your  duty  to  restore.”  Ves- 


1  Jupiter  was  worshiped  under 
three  hundred  names,  but  he  is  the 
same  in  all  —  Jupiter  Pluvius,  Ful- 
gurator,  Tonans,  Fulminator,  Im- 
bricitor,  Serenator,  Juvictus,  Stator, 
Predator,  Triumphator,  Victor,  Op- 
timus,  Maximus,  Imperator,  Urbis 
Custos,  etc. —  Cf.  Chronicum  Alex- 


andrinum  a  Radero  (Editum  Mu- 
nahii,  anno  1615). 

2  Tacitus ,  book  iii.  c.  69,  70 ;  A. 
W.  Crainer,  Flavius  Vespasianus 
Heinierod  (1785);  Flavius  Vespa- 
siani  I mperatoris  Vita  (1833);  His- 
toire  des  Empereurs  (Tillemont) ; 
Lenormant,  An.  Hist. ,  vol.  i.  p.  197. 


OF  TYANA. 


21  / 


pasian  was  amazed  at  this,  for  as  yet  no  intelligence 
had  been  received  from  Rome  of  this  burning  of  the 
temple,  which  took  place  as  follows  :  Domitian,  son  of 
Vespasian,  was  up  in  arms  against  Vitellius  in  defense 
of  his  father’s  authority.  The  youth  was  besieged  in 
the  capital,  and  in  making  his  escape  from  the  besiegers 
the  temple  was  burnt, —  the  account  of  which  reached 
Apollonius  before  it  did  any  other  man  in  Egypt. 

The  next  morning  Apollonius  introduced  Dion  and 
Euphrates  to  the  emperor,  assuring  him  that  they  were 
friends  attached  to  his  interests,  and  not  unmindful  of 
the  critical  position  of  state  affairs  at  present. 

But  the  emperor  kept  Apollonius  always  by  his  side 
during  his  stay  in  Egypt,  and  he  acknowledged  his 
rank  as  a  prophet.  With  this  intimacy  between 
Vespasian  and  Apollonius  begins  the  use  of  gnostic 
emblems  on  Alexandrian  coins.1 


1  Eusebius  against  Hierocles.  The 
coins  struck  at  Alexandria,  that  is, 
Roman  coins,  during  the  empire, 
are  more  complete  in  the  cabinets 
of  collectors  than  of  any  other 
Roman  province.  They  are  not 
very  important  in  themselves  as 
historical  factors,  but  as  confirma¬ 
tory  evidence  they  are  invaluable. 
The  general  type  of  all  Alexandrian 
coins  was  :  Egyptian  games,  Over¬ 
flow  of  the  Nile,  and  the  Worship 
of  Serapis.  There  was  a  bronze 
coin  of  Augustus  (a.  v.  g.  ),  and  one 
of  his  wife  Livia.  There  were  also 
bronze  coins  of  Caius  and  Lucius 
(c.  L.  CAESS.),sons  of  Marcus  Agrip- 
pa.  The  Alexandrian  coins  of  Ti¬ 
berius  (ti.  )  were  in  bronze  and 

28 


base  metal,  and  were  very  numer¬ 
ous.  Of  Claudius  (ti.  clavd. 
Caesar.  AVG.  pm.  TRP. ),  they  were 
of  bronze,  copper,  and  base  metal, 
sometimes  associated  with  his  wife, 
Messalina,  and  at  others  with  Agrip¬ 
pina.  The  coins  of  Nero  (ner.) 
were  of  copper,  bronze,  and  base 
metal,  on  which  he  was  sometimes 
associated  with  Agrippina,  his 
mother,  facing  each  other.  There 
were  some  base-metal  coins  of  Oc- 
tavia,  Nero’s  wife,  and  some  of 
Poppsea  with  Nero. 

Galba,  Otho,  and  Vitellius  were  all 
represented  on  Alexandrian  coins. 

Vespasian  (vesp.)  began  a  new 
era  in  Alexandrian  coinage,  and 
there  were  many  of  his,  some  with 


218 


APOLLONIUS 


Vespasian  was  proclaimed  emperor,  A.  D.  69,  being 
sixty  years  of  age.  He  had  before  served  as  pro- 
consul  in  Egypt  (a.  D.  60),  and  military  tribune  in 
Thrace  ;  quaester  of  Crete,  afterward  praetor.  As  Apol¬ 
lonius  subsequently  went  up  to  the  temple  of  Serapis 
to  worship,  a  peculiar  beauty  shone  in  his  face,  and  the 
words  he  uttered  on  all  subjects  were  divine  and  framed 
in  wisdom.  He  approved  not  of  shedding  the  blood 
of  bulls,  nor  of  goats,  nor  of  other  animals,  for  the  sac¬ 
rifices  of  such  animals  he  thought  unbecoming  the 
feasts  of  the  gods,  and  he  pronounced  all  such  misuse 
of  the  sacred  temple,  profanity.  When  the  patriarch 1 
asked  “why  he  did  not  sacrifice,”  “I  would  rather,” 
said  Apollonius,  “ask  you  what  your  motive  is  in 
doing  so.”  To  this  the  patriarch  said:  “And  who  is 


his  son  Titus  in  bronze  and  copper, 
others  with  Domatilla,  his  wife,  in 
the  same  metals.  The  coins  of 
Titus  (t.  or  t.  caes.  divi.  vesp.  f. 
AVG.)  were  few,  and  were  in  bronze 
and  copper,  as  also  were  those  of 
Domitian  (dom.  or  DOMIT.)  There 
was  an  Egyptian  bronze  coin  with 
Domitian  associated  with  Domitia, 
his  wife.  All  the  coins  of  Nerva 
(ner.)  struck  at  Alexandria  were 
of  base  metal.  Tiberius,  in  the 
tenth  year  of  his  reign  (a.  d.  24), 
closed  the  Alexandrian  mint,  after 
which  period  we  find  no  new  issues 
of  Egyptian  coins.  They  were  again 
allowed  to  coin  under  Claudius, 
A.  d.  41.  And  now  begins  the 
richest  Egyptian  series.  Every  coin 
is  dated  with  the  year  of  Claudius’s 
reign,  while  the  finest  of  all  Egyp¬ 
tian  coinages  in  execution  and  va¬ 


riety  was  during  the  reign  of 
Domitian  (a.  d.  92).  Of  the  reign 
of  Nerva,  the  coinage  is  the  only 
trace  of  his  having  ruled  in  Egypt. 

On  the  ascension  of  Vespasian, 
the  Egyptians  were  very  much  puz¬ 
zled  by  the  word  “ Freedom  ”  struck 
on  the  Roman  coins  sent  for  circu¬ 
lation  among  them  by  their  foreign 
masters,  but  were  very  much  pleased 
when  they  found  it  accompanied 
with  a  redress  of  their  grievances. 

There  were  a  few  coins  struck  by 
the  Alexandrian  mint  in  his  name, 
Vespasian,  with  the  figure  of 
Victory. — History  of  Egypt ,  from 
the  Earliest  Times  till  the  Conquest 
by  the  Arabs,  A.  D.  640,  by  Samuel 
Sharpe,  vol.  ii.  p.  135. 

1  The  name  given  to  the  high- 
priest  of  Serapis,  hence  Pope. —  See 
Encyc.  Brit.,  vol.  xviii.  p.  410. 


OF  TYANA. 


219 


wise  enough  to  reform  the  established  worship  of  the 
Egyptians  ?  ”  “  Every  sage,”  replied  Apollonius,  “who 
comes  filled  with  the  wisdom  of  the  Indians.”  “This 
day,”  said  the  patriarch,  “  I  will  burn  an  ox  which  has 
been  found  ‘  without  spot  or  blemish,’  and  I  wish  you 
to  participate  of  its  odor ;  and  I  think  you  will  not  dis¬ 
approve  of  it  if  the  gods  show  no  displeasure,  for  it  has 
been  sealed  with  the  “holy  wafer’  by  the  sphragistee,” 
a^pdrpar/^  (priests  who  were  sealers).1 

“Can  you  imagine,”  said  Apollonius,  “that  the  fire 
proceeding  from  burning  pine  or  cedar  possesses  pro¬ 
phetic  quality,  and  is  capable  of  foretelling  events  ? 
Why  not  reverence  the  Nile,  the  common  cup  of 
Egypt,  or  form  your  prognostics  on  the  rising  sun  ?  — 
source  of  innumerable  blessings  to  humanity,  and  to 
none  more  than  the  Egyptian.” 

Many  months’  conference  were  had  and  much  good 
advice  Vespasian  received  from  Apollonius  in  this  criti¬ 
cal  juncture  of  the  affairs  of  the  empire.  For  it  was  un¬ 
doubtedly  true  that  although  Vespasian  had  wrested  an 
empire  from  his  competitors,  Otho  and  Vitellius,  it  was  a 
shattered  and  bankrupt  tenancy  ;  the  revenue  which  had 
been  impaired  by  Caius  and  the  Claudian  freedmen,  was 
plunged  by  Nero  into  deeper  insolvency,  the  army  was 
demoralized,  the  senate  was  helpless,  some  of  the  fairest 
provinces  had  been  ravaged,  two  of  the  noblest  cities  in 
Italy  were  charred  heaps,  the  coasts  were  swept  by 
pirates,  and  the  capital  a  ruin.  Such  was  the  condition 
of  Rome  when  Vespasian  ascended  the  throne. 

From  Alexandria  Vespasian  had  already  sent  back 
his  son  Titus,  who  had  acquired  fame  in  Gaul,  to  Judea 

l  Isis  and  Osiris  in  Plutarch’s  Morals ,  vol.  iv.  p.  89. 


220 


APOLLONIUS 


to  finish  the  siege  of  Jerusalem.  The  Jewish  historian, 
Flavius  Josephus,  was  in  Alexandria  in  the  service  of 
Vespasian,  having  been  taken  prisoner  by  him.  He  was 
promised  his  freedom  on  condition  of  betraying  his 
country’s  cause.1  He  accepted  the  offer,  joined  the 
army  of  Titus,  and  marched  to  Jerusalem  to  overthrow 
the  temple  in  which  his  forefathers  as  high-priests  had 
earned  the  only  fame  associated  with  the  name  of 
Josephus.  Its  overthrow  was  accomplished  the  next 
year,  A.  D.  70.2  In  considering  his  future  plan  of  con¬ 
duct,  Vespasian  wished  everything  to  turn  out  for  the 
public  good,  and  in  an  interview  with  Apollonius 
resumed  a  former  conversation,  now,  however,  in  the 
presence  of  Dion  and  Euphrates,  concerning  the  former 
emperors  of  Rome. 

In  considering  the  character  of  Tiberius,  they  agreed 
that  he  had  come  into  power  under  a  free  government, 
and  that  he  had  willfully  and  wickedly  perverted  it  to  a 
cruel  tyranny.  And  when  he  called  to  mind  Caligula, 
who  succeeded  him,  he  was  but  a  panorama  of  crime. 
Instead  of  devoting  his  life  to  the  advancement  of  the 
empire,  his  life  was  spent  under  the  dominion  of  the 
most  unbridled  passion,  who,  clothed  after  the  fashion 
of  the  Lydians,  died  victorious  in  wars  which  never 
existed,  and  defiled  the  empire  by  bacchanalian  insanity. 
He  had  debauched  and  lived  in  open  incest  with  his 
sisters,  ordered  the  wife  of  Caius  Piso  on  the  night  of 
her  marriage  to  be  carried  to  his  own  house,  and 

1  Josephus  wrote  Antiquities  of  nor  its  temple  has  been  destroyed. 
the  Jews  to  A.  D.  66.  He  bears  no  The  temple  exists  to-day,  and  the 
testimony  to  Christ  or  Christians.  wallsofthe  city  are  still  there. — His - 

2  Samuel  Sharpe,  Hist,  of  Egypt ,  tory  of  the  Israelites  and  Judeans ,  2 
vol.  ii.  p.  141.  Neither  Jerusalem  vols.  (London),  vol.  ii.  p.  334. 


OF  TYANA. 


221 


afterward  banished  her.  How  he  bestowed  his  affec¬ 
tions  upon  Caesonia,  who  was  a  wanton  of  unbounded 
lasciviousness,  and  whom  he  exhibited  naked  to  his 
friends.1  But  it  is  disgusting  to  relate  the  infamous 
doings  of  this  monster.  And  as  to  the  good  man 
Claudius,  he  had  no  time  to  attend  to  affairs  of  state, 
for  in  attending  to  his  women  he  became  stupefied,  and 
forgot  both  the  empire  and  himself,  and  died,  as  was 
reported,  by  their  hands. 

“  And  Nero,”  said  Vespasian,  “  of  whom  we  have 
spoken  on  a  former  occasion,  defiled  and  debauched  the 
empire.  And  Galba,2  murdered  in  the  Forum  after 
having  adopted  Otho  and  Piso,3  both  sons  of  common 
prostitutes,  as  participators,  promised  no  improvement 
in  the  affairs  of  the  empire.” 

“And  as  for  my  part,”  further  said  Vespasian,  “if  the 
empire  is  to  be  conceded  to  such  a  man  as  Vitellius,  the 
most  abominable  of  all  his  predecessors,  I  think  it  were 
better  that  Nero  should  be  restored  to  us.  Taking  then  into 
further  consideration,  my  friends,”  continued  Vespasian, 
“  the  several  kinds  of  tyranny  which  have  disgraced 
the  state,  and  to  avoid  the  gulf  into  which  my  prede¬ 
cessors  have  fallen,  I  appoint  you  my  counselors  to 
advise  what  are  the  proper  means  for  meliorating  a 
government  so  deservedly  odious.”4 

“  In  the  selection  of  your  counselors,”  said  Apol¬ 
lonius,  “  you  put  me  in  mind  of  a  great  musician,  a  man 
of  much  celebrity  in  his  profession,  who  used  to  keep  a 


1  Suetonius  Caligula,  xxv.  (Bohn 
ed.,  p.  268).  See,  also,  Berwick’s 
Life  of  Apollonius,  p.  282. 

2  Hist.  Gemdlde :  Galba ,  etc.  (F. 

Horn). 


3  Cneius  Piso  was  prefect  of  Syria, 
and  was  murdered  by  Germani- 
cus. 

4  Apollonius  de  Tyane,  etc.  (Chas- 
sang),  p.  214,  et  seq. 


222 


APOLLONIUS 


corps  of  the  most  unskillful  performers  always  in  his 
employ  that  he  might  learn  to  play  from  them  by  con¬ 
trast.”  After  this  they  separated.1  Apollonius  had  in 
the  mean  time  performed  many  miracles  in  Egypt,  some 
under  the  very  eye  of  Vespasian,  which  endeared  the 
emperor  to  him,  but  in  consequence  of  which  Euphrates 
had  begun  to  entertain  a  secret  jealousy  of  Apollonius. 
They  all  being  votaries  to  the  shrine  of  a  favorite  oracle, 
and  incensed  at  this  imaginary  preference,  Euphrates 
became  boisterous  and  undignified  in  his  voice  and 
demeanor.  In  answer  to  some  remarks  of  Euphrates, 
which  were  personal  and  insulting  in  the  extreme  to 
Apollonius,  and  in  which  he  also  advised  Vespasian  to 
surrender  his  power  to  the  people,  Apollonius  said, 
“  You  seem  to  me  to  err  in  your  endeavors  to  make  the 
emperor  waver  in  a  matter  on  which  he  has  fully 
determined  in  his  heart.  The  emperor  is  possessed  of 
great  power,  and  it  should  be  our  province  as  philoso¬ 
phers  rather  to  school  him  to  use  it  discreetly  and  with 
moderation  than  to  relinquish  it.  He  is  also  vested 
with  full  consular  authority,  has  long  filled  the  highest 
offices,  and  a  show  of  weakness  at  the  present  crisis  by 
a  surrender  of  any  acquired  advantage,  or  a  hesitancy 
in  the  course  he  has  determined  upon,  would  certainly 
prove  fatal  to  him  and  the  empire.  Let  us,  there¬ 
fore,  out  of  consideration  to  the  character  of  the  man, 
the  number  of  his  troops,  their  excellent  discipline,  and 
the  wisdom  by  which  he  has  formed  all  his  plans, —  let 
us  rather  encourage  his  good  determination  and  genius, 
and  pray  for  good  omens  and  all  things  else  which  may 
insure  success.  It  lies  within  his  power  to  give  the 
1  Vie  d"1  Apollonius  de  Tyane ,  par  le  Grand  D’Aussy,  vol.  ii.  p.  125. 


OF  TYANA. 


223 


empire  a  respite  from  its  past  thralldom  of  blood  and 
lawlessness.  He  is,  moreover,  the  father  of  two  sons 
who,  according  to  report,  are  men  of  good  disposition, 
Titus  and  Domitian,  both  of  whom  would  become  his 
bitterest  enemies,  were  they  not  sure  of  receiving  the 
empire  at  his  death.  They  may  by  a  proper  conduct 
on  his  part  be  held  as  natural  guardians  of  his  throne, 
and  not  mercenaries  forced  into  allegiance.  And  this 
proper  conduct  on  his  part  may  be  induced  through  the 
enthusiasm  displayed  by  us  in  his  cause,  for  in  us  he 
has  implicit  faith.  It  is  of  little  consequence  to  me 
what  form  of  government  is  established ;  I  live  under 
that  of  the  gods ; 1  and  yet  I  have  always  taken  great 
interest  and  no  small  hazard  in  my  efforts  to  sustain 
popular  government.  I  resisted  the  power  of  Nero 
whilst  under  the  most  unjust  accusation,  and  I  opposed 
the  infamous  Tigellinus  to  his  beard.  The  assistance  I 
gave  to  Vindex  in  Spain  was  a  blow  aimed  at  the 
tyranny  of  Nero.  But  on  no  account  do  I  claim  that  I 
put  down  the  tyrant.  I  only  acted  the  character  be¬ 
coming  a  philosopher.”  2 

To  a  question  asked  by  Vespasian,  he  said,  “You,  O 
Emperor,  will  make  better  use  of  your  riches  and  your 
power  if  you  use  them  in  protecting  the  rights  and  sup¬ 
plying  the  necessities  of  the  poor,  and  in  giving  greater 
security  to  the  property  of  the  rich,  than  any  former 
sovereign.  Do  not  lop  away  such  ears  of  corn  as  are  tall 

1  For  since  Cappadocia  had  be-  brute  force  of  the  uncultured  Ro- 
come  a  Roman  province  Apollonius,  man,  and  looked  forward  to  emanci- 
in  common  with  other  Greeks  of  pation. 

noble  descent,  had  taken  but  little  2  Arrian,  Epictetus ,  seu  Commen- 
interest  in  the  affairs  of  state.  They  tarii  Disputatione  Epicteti  (Lug- 
felt  themselves  degraded  by  the  duni,  1600). 


224 


APOLLONIUS 


and  most  conspicuous,  for  herein  the  maxim  of  Aristotle 
is  unjust,  but  do  you  preserve  them  as  allies.  In  what 
concerns  the  public,  act  like  a  prince;  in  what  relates 
to  yourself,  as  you  please.  Show  yourself  terrible  to  all 
innovators  in  the  politics  or  government  of  the  state, 
yet  not  so  much  in  punishment  as  a  preparation  for 
vengeance.  Acknowledge  the  law  of  the  land  to  be 
the  supreme  rule  of  your  conduct,  for  you  will  be  more 
mild  in  making  laws  when  you  know  that  you  are  to  be 
subject  to  them  yourself.  Reverence  the  gods  more 
than  ever,  for  you  have  received  great  things  at  their 
hands  and  have  still  much  to  ask.  I  need  not  speak  to 
you  of  wine,  women,  and  gambling  vices  to  which  you 
were  never  addicted.  You  have  two  sons;  keep  them, 
I  pray  you,  under  discipline ;  let  them  understand  that 
the  empire  is  to  be  a  reward  for  virtue  and  not  a  matter 
of  common  rights.  I  have  but  one  more  word  to  say. 
In  the  selection  of  your  governors  for  the  provinces, 
select  them  from  the  people  over  whom  they  are  sent 
to  rule,  and  who  thoroughly  understand  the  language. 
Send  Greeks  to  Greece.  Whilst  I  was  in  Peloponnesus 
I  called  upon  the  governor,  who  knew  nothing  of  Greek, 
and  the  people  knew  nothing  of  him  and  cared  less. 
Hence  arose  innumerable  discords.”  On  the  closing  of 
this  discourse  Vespasian  thanked  Apollonius,  and  com¬ 
mended  him  greatly  upon  his  wisdom.  And  Euphrates, 
who  was  an  eminent  philosopher  (on  the  authority  of 
Pliny,1  Epictetus,  Eunapius,  and  Eusebius),  but  an 
atheist,  rose  and  said :  “  I  agree  with  everything  the 
master  has  spoken.  But,  O  King  !  approve  and  counte¬ 
nance  that  philosophy  which  is  consonant  to  nature, 

1  Briicker ,  vol.  ii.  p.  566. 


OF  TYANA. 


225 


and  shun  that  which  affects  to  carry  on  a  secret  inter¬ 
course  with  celestial  beings.  There  can  be  but  little 
use  in  your  appealing  to  the  gods,  who  heretofore  have 
had  quite  as  much  as  they  could  do  to  take  care  of 
themselves,  and  who  at  best  have  rendered  but  little 
service  to  Rome  which  may  be  accounted  for  good.” 
The  emperor  here  gently  interposed  and  Euphrates 
retired. 

Dion  said  a  few  words  in  advice ;  the  emperor  again 
thanked  them,  and  the  conference  ended.1 

After  the  proper  sacrifices  had  been  performed  the 
emperor  gave  Apollonius  leave  publicly  to  ask  what 
present  he  chose.  Apollonius,  pretending  to  have  a  dis¬ 
position  to  make  full  use  of  the  permission,  said,  “And 
what  presents  do  you  mean  to  give  me,  O  King  ?  ” 
“Ten  talents  at  this  time”  said  the  emperor,  “and  all 
I  have  when  you  come  to  Rome.”  “Then,”  said 
Apollonius,  “  I  will  be  as  careful  with  what  you  now 
have  as  if  it  were  my  own,  and  shall  not  be  prodigal  of 
what  must  some  day  be  mine.  For  the  present,  O 
Emperor !  I  request  that  you  may  attend  to  my  com¬ 
panions,  who  probably  will  not  despise  your  gifts.” 
Whereupon  Vespasian  bade  both  Euphrates  and  Dion 
ask  boldly  what  they  wished.  On  hearing  this  Dion 
blushed  and  said,  “  Reconcile  me  to  my  master  for  the 
contradiction  I  offered  him  yesterday.”  The  emperor 


1  Dion  was  an  amiable  and  affable 
man,  deserving  to  be  loved  for  the 
pleasantries  of  his  discourse,  which 
flowed  like  the  perfumes  of  a  sacri¬ 
fice.  But  Vespasian  loved  Apol¬ 
lonius,  had  great  delight  in  hearing 
him  talk  of  what  antiquities  he  saw 

29 


in  his  travels,  of  the  Indian  Phraotes, 
of  the  rivers  and  wild  beasts  and 
products  of  India,  and  its  immense 
resources ;  and  above  all,  when  he 
prophesied  the  future  greatness 
of  the  Roman  world  as  communi¬ 
cated  by  the  gods. 


226 


APOLLONIUS 


praised  him  and  said,  “  I  asked  and  received  on  your 
behalf  the  reconciliation  yesterday  ;  now  demand  what¬ 
ever  you  please'.”  To  which  Dion  replied,  “  Lasthenes 
of  Apamea,  a  town  in  Bithynia,  formerly  studied  phi¬ 
losophy  with  me ;  he  afterward  became  enamored  of 
military  life,  and  joined  the  forces  now  at  Jerusalem 
under  Titus ;  he  now  wishes  to  return  to  his  philosophi¬ 
cal  pursuits,  and  my  request  is  that  he  may  get  his  dis¬ 
charge.”  The  moment  the  emperor  heard  this  he 
ordered  his  discharge  with  the  full  pay  of  emeriti. 
The  emperor  now  turned  to  Euphrates,  who  had  put 
his  request  in  writing,  which  he  gave  to  the  emperor  to 
read  when  alone  ;  but  Vespasian,  anxious  to  give  Apol¬ 
lonius  and  all  present  an  opportunity  of  canvassing  it, 
read  it  aloud.  It  appeared  from  the  memorial  that 
Euphrates  made  several  requests,  of  which  some  were 
relative  to  himself  and  some  to  other  people ;  but  all 
had  money  in  them,  either  directly  or  indirectly,  for 
their  object.  Apollonius  only  smiled  and  said,  “And 
how  came  you,  Euphrates,  to  speak  so  much  in  favor 
of  a  republican  form  of  government  who  had  so  much  to 
ask  for  from  a  monarch?”  This  seems  to  have  been  the 
major  cause  of  the  difference  subsisting  between  Apol¬ 
lonius  and  Euphrates.  As  soon  as  affairs  at  Alexandria 
were  settled,  Vespasian  determined  on  taking  his  depar¬ 
ture.  But  before  he  did  so,  he  expressed  a  wish  that 
Apollonius  should  accompany  him  to  Rome.  This 
he  begged  to  decline,  inasmuch  as  he  had  not  seen 
Egypt  as  he  desired,  and  more  especially  as  he  was 
disinclined  to  enter  upon  a  career  of  political  activity  in 
any  form,  and  announced  himself  as  having  no  interest 
in  the  empire,  but  lived  under  the  rule  of  the  gods ; 


OF  TYANA. 


227 


exacting  but  one  promise  from  Vespasian,  that  as 
Rome  was  happily  now  at  peace,  he  should  use  his 
utmost  endeavor  to  maintain  it.  And  in  furtherance 
of  this  idea  Vespasian,  on  coming  into  power,  expended 
large  sums  on  public  improvements,  rebuilt  the  capital 
destroyed  by  Nero,  erected  a  temple  to  Peace,1  and 
a  new  Forum.  He  patronized  learning  and  learned  men, 
made  grants  of  money  to  professors,  and  soon  united  all 
suffrages  under  him.  His  son  Titus  took  command  of 
the  army  of  the  East,  and  by  him  Jerusalem  was  in¬ 
vested  and  razed  (A.  D.  70). 2  That  a  rupture  had 
afterward  taken  place  between  the  emperor  and  Apol¬ 
lonius  is  evident,  the  cause  of  which  appears  to  have  been 
as  follows  :  after  the  above  related  interviews  Apollonius 
discontinued  his  visits  to  the  emperor,  though  often 
invited  and  written  to  for  that  purpose.  “  Nero,”  said 
Apollonius,  “  had  given  liberty  to  Greece,3  and  per¬ 
formed  a  work  more  glorious  than  might  have  been 
expected  of  him  from  the  general  texture  of  his  char¬ 
acter;  the  consequence  of  which  was,  the  towns  and 
cities  of  Greece  flourished  and  resumed  their  ancient 


1  This  was  esteemed  the  finest 
temple  of  all  Rome.  Here  were 
lodged  the  spoils  that  were  brought 
from  the  temple  of  Jerusalem,  and 
it  afterward  abounded  with  an  infin¬ 
ity  of  other  riches.  This  temple, 
we  are  told  by  Josephus,  who  was 
in  Rome  at  that  time,  was  built  im¬ 
mediately  after  the  taking  of  Jerusa¬ 
lem,  when  the  Roman  Empire  had 
put  an  end  to  all  their  wars,  and 
enjoyed  peace  on  every  side.  The 
temple  is  said  to  have  been  nearly 
two  hundred  feet  in  breadth  and 


three  hundred  in  length,  and  lined 
on  the  inside  throughout  with  brass 
plates.  One  of  its  noble  pillars  now 
stands  before  the  church  of  Saint 
Maria  Maggiore.  There  is  a  group 
of  figures  at  the  Fames e  palace 
which  was  cut  from  the  lower  part 
of  one  of  the  pillars. 

2  Tacitus,  Hist.,  b.  v.  xxi.  p.  5. 

3  Freedom  to  govern  themselves, 
and  their  cities,  free  cities. —  Ber¬ 
wick’s  Life  of  Apollonius  of  Tyana, 
p.  296 ;  also,  Vita  Neronis  (Tille- 
ment,  1782). 


228 


APOLLONIUS 


Doric  and  Attic  manners ;  to  which  may  be  added  that 
a  harmony  sprang  up  among  them  unknown  even  in  their 
best  days,  and  they  felt  little  oppression  under  the 
Roman  yoke.  Of  this  liberty,  which  produced  such 
good  results,  Vespasian  deprived  them,  under  the  pre¬ 
tense  that  some  disturbance  or  other  had  taken  place.1 
Apollonius  believed  that  the  offense  did  not  warrant 
such  a  mark  of  displeasure,  which  drew  from  him  the 
following  letter : 

“  ‘ Apollonius  to  the  Emperor  Vespasian. 

“  ‘  Health  —  You  have  enslaved  Greece,  as  fame  says, 
by  which  you  imagine  that  you  have  done  more  than 
Xerxes,  without  calling  to  mind  that  you  have  sunk 
below  Nero.  Farewell.’  ”2 

Apollonius,  being  a  Greek,  was  tenacious  of  the  fame 
and  liberties  of  Greece,  and  had  little  concern  for  the 
Roman  empire.3  Vespasian  was  unequal  to  the  great 
task  of  restitution  ;  to  supply  his  coffers,  he  sold  offices 
to  candidates  and  pardons  to  criminals  ;  prefectorates 
to  the  highest  bidder,  and  “  gorged  the  games  ”  ;  he 
became  a  financial  huckster,4  rather  than  an  econoitiist ; 
he  impoverished  senators  and  consuls.  These  were 
the  charges  preferred  against  him  by  Apollonius. 
Nero  was  no  orator  or  poet,  but  he  was  by  no  means 
insensible  to  eloquence  and  art.  Of  these  personal 
attainments,  Vespasian  was  entirely  devoid.  Had  he 
made  verses,  for  which  he  had  too  much  good  sense, 

1  Pausanias ,  vol.  ii.  p.  212.  toriarum ,  grcece  et  l at.,  etc.  (H. 

2 Apollonius  de  Tyane ,  etc.,  par  Stephanus,  1592),  p.  62 ,  et  seq. 
Chassang,  p.  226.  4  Suetonius,  Les  doaze  Ce'sars  : 

3  Appiani  Alexandrini  rom.  His-  Vespasien. 


OF  TYANA . 


229 


they  would  have  been  worse  than  Nero’s,  and  his  elo¬ 
quence,  unsupported  by  his  thirty  legions,  would  not 
have  gained  him  a  single  vote  in  the  senate  or  a  single 
cause  in  the  courts.  But  he  was  a  brave  man,  and  a  suc¬ 
cessful  general ;  he  had  tamed  the  fierce  Celts  of  Britain, 
and  the  fiercer  rabble  of  Judea;  he  could  not  inaugu¬ 
rate  revolutions,  nor  direct  their  course,  but  he  could 
stand  and  battle  the  whirlwind  without  flinching;  and 
when  it  had  subsided,  he  impersonated  a  compromise 
of  either  a  glorious  or  an  inglorious  peace.  Before 
Vespasian  left  Egypt,  the  Alexandrians  gave  him  the 
nickname  of  Cybrosactes,  the  scullion,  on  account  of 
his  stinginess  and  greediness.1 

Apollonius  now  determined  to  go  up  the  Nile,  not, 
however,  until  he  had  paid  his  respects  to  ^Elius  Pro¬ 
motes,  an  Egyptian  physician,  who  wrote  in  Greek. 
He  had  invited  Apollonius  to  become  his  guest.  After 
an  interchange  of  courtesies  with  Promotes,  he  set  out 
for  Upper  Egypt,  accompanied  by  the  celebrated  stoic 


1  There  are  many  coins  of  Ves¬ 
pasian  confirming  nearly  every  im¬ 
portant  act  of  his  life.  There  are 
no  less  than  thirteen  Roman  coins 
commemorating  the  capture  of  Je¬ 
rusalem.  They  are  quite  similar ; 
all  have  the  effigy  of  Vespasian,  and 
the  obverse,  Judea,  represented  by 
a  female  sitting  upon  the  ground 
behind  a  palm-tree,  weeping ;  some¬ 
times  accompanied  by  Victory,  stand¬ 
ing. —  Cf  Humphrey’s  Coin  Col¬ 
lector’s  Manual,  p.  328. 

Some  of  the  coins  of  Vespasian 
represent  him  with  his  son  Titus 
and  Domitian;  some  bear  date  at 


Antioch,  in  Syria.  They  are  of 
gold,  copper,  and  bronze.  He  is 
represented  on  some  with  his  wife 
Flavia  Domitilla,  and  with  her 
daughter  Domitilla. —  Imperatorum 
Romanorum  numismata ,  a  Pompejo 
M  ad  Heraclium  ab  A  Occone  olim 
congesta ,  etc.  (1683,  F.  Mediobarbi 
Biragi),  p.  220. 

There  was  a  coin  struck  at  Rome, 
commemorating  the  completion  of 
the  temple  of  Peace.  All  of  the 
coins  attributed  to  the  mother  of 
Vespasian  are  false. — Observationes 
et  Conjectures  in  numismata  queedam 
antiqua  rcapep ^ov  (L.  Begeri,  1691). 


) 


230  A  POLL  ONI  US 

philosopher,  Euphrates,  an  Egyptian  or  Syrian  by 
birth,  whom  we  have  before  mentioned,  and  of  whom 
we  know  but  little.  He  was  troubled  with  an  incurable 
disease,  and  afterward  sought  and  obtained  permission 
from  Hadrian  to  commit  suicide  (A.  D.  121).  Pliny  has 
mentioned  him,  and  given  him  a  good  name.  Epictetus 
spoke  of  him,  admired  his  eloquence,  and  commended 
him  for  his  many  virtues.  Eunapius  also  refers  to  him 
by  name.  Euphrates  did  not  like  Apollonius.  The 
cause  of  the  difference  seems  to  have  been  the  assump¬ 
tion  of  sacred  honors  by  Apollonius.  He  did  not 
believe  in  divine  inspiration,  and  consequently  thought 
Apollonius  guilty  of  deceit ;  and  he  neglected  no  oppor¬ 
tunity  to  cast  ridicule  upon  the  apologists  of  divine 
interposition  in  the  affairs  of  man.1 

So  long  as  the  emperor  remained  in  Egypt,  Euphra¬ 
tes  refrained  from  giving  expression  to  his  dislike  ;  but 
after  the  emperor’s  departure  he  gave  full  vent  to  his 
passion,  without  sparing  reproaches,  and  on  one  occa¬ 
sion  threatened  him  with  a  billet  of  wood.  Apollonius 
conducted  himself  like  a  philosopher,  and  answered  all 
that  he  said  with  the  coolest  reason.  Eusebius  has 
made  some  just  remarks  upon  the  difference  between 
Apollonius  and  Euphrates.  He  considers  the  latter  a 
very  celebrated  philosopher.  Euphrates  wrote  some 
books  against  the  Tyanean,  which  Philostratus  promised 
to  refute  ;  no  such  refutation  has  reached  our  day.  The 
company  of  Apollonius  consisted  of  thirty  followers, 
pupils,  or  disciples,  or  persons  desirous  of  benefiting  by 
his  addresses  or  discourses.  Menippus,  one  of  the 

1  Apollonius  de  Tyane  (Chassang),  p.  225 ;  also,  Apologie  pour  les 
Grands  Hommes  soupgon?ies  de  Magie ,  par  G.  Naude,  p.  175. 


OF  TYANA . 


231 


number,  who  had  just  completed  his  term  of  silence 
and  was  now  entitled  to  address  others,  was  left  behind. 
Dioscorides,  whose  constitution  was  unable  to  bear  the 
fatigues  and  exposures  of  a  long  journey,  was  advised 
by  Apollonius  not  to  go.  He  then  assembled  the  rest ; 
for  though  many  had  deserted  at  Arica,  where  he 
stopped  on  his  way  to  Rome  in  Nero’s  time,  many  had 
joined  him  since,  with  whom  he  talked  of  the  journey 
he  was  about  to  take  in  the  following  manner  : 

“  I  think  it  right,  my  friends,  to  use  an  Olympic 
exodium  with  you.  The  people  of  Elis,  on  the  approach 
of  the  Olympic  games,  exercise  their  athletes,  for  the 
space  of  thirty  days,  in  their  own  town.  The  people 
of  Delphi  and  Corinth,  at  the  celebration  of  their  games, 
address  all  those  who  are  to  contend  at  them  in  this 
manner :  ‘  Enter  the  stadium,  and  show  yourselves  men 
worthy  of  victory.’  The  Eleans,  when  they  come  to 
Olympia,  thus  address  the  athletse :  ‘You  who  have 
endured  labors  fit  for  the  palaestra  who  have  come  to 
Olympia,  having  never  manifested  physical  or  mental 
impotency,  go  on  bravely.  If  otherwise,  retire.’  ”  After 
this  address,  twenty  of  his  disciples  determined  to  re¬ 
main  behind  with  Menippus,  at  Alexandria,  and  await 
his  return,  among  whom  was  Euphrates.  The  remain¬ 
ing  ten  sacrificed  to  the  gods  for  a  good  journey,  and 
set  out  for  the  pyramids,  mounted  on  camels,  with  the 
Nile  and  the  great  Maoris  on  the  right.  They  some¬ 
times  traveled  in  boats,  that  they  might  see  everything 
worthy  of  notice.  The  vessel  in  which  they  sailed  was 
not  unlike  the  sacred  galley  of  legation.1 

1  0sd>pic>  the  name  given  to  the  ship  in  which  the  Athenians  made  their 
annual  procession  to  Delos. 


232 


APOLLONIUS 


No  city,  temple,  or  sacred  spot  on  the  Nile  was 
passed  unobserved.  They  arrived  at  Sais,  ancient  cap¬ 
ital  of  Lower  Egypt,1  on  the  day  of  the  celebration  of 
the  festival  of  Neith,2 — Apollonius  says  Minerva,3  from 
the  similarity  of  the  rites.  Neith  was  the  goddess  of  ' 
the  lower  heavens ;  the  inventress  and  deity  of  weav¬ 
ing  ;  her  emblem  was  the  shuttle  ;  she  was  also  called 
“  Mother  of  the  Sun  ”  and  “  Mistress  of  Heaven.4  Her 
temple,  the  largest  in  all  Egypt,  was  the  palace,  or  citadel, 
and  stood  upon  a  plot  of  ground  four  stadia  (one-half 
mile)  square,  surrounded  by  a  wall  fifty  feet  thick,  in 
the  middle  of  which  stood  the  temple.  Solon.visited  this 
temple,  and  the  priests  honored  him  with  an  interview. 
They  told  him  the  story  of  Atlantis,  which  was  sub¬ 
merged  nine  thousand  years  before  his  time.  (See  Plato’s 
Critias.)  Apollonius  also  visited  the  temple  of  Ammon- 
Ra,  sometimes  Horus,  sacred/  to  the  sun  or  deity  of 
midday,  the  soul  of  the  world.  Ra  was  considered  the 
most  striking  manifestation  of  the  great  god  Pthah,  in¬ 
carnation  of  Apis ;  his  statue  in  this  temple  was  with 
the  head  of  a  sparrow-hawk.5  His  greatest  temple  was 
at  Memphis.  Here  was  also  the  temple  dedicated  to 
the  worship  of  the  bull  Ammon-Ehi,  called  by  the 
Greeks  Mnevis.  He  was  the  rival  of  the  great  bull 
Apis,  worshiped  with  such  magnificence  at  Memphis.6 

The  festival  of  Neith,7  or  Minerva,  at  Sais  was 


1  Letters  of  Lepsius  (Bohn  ed., 
*853)>  P-  43- 

2  Mythology  and  Fables  of  the 
Ancients  (Banier),  vol.  i.  p.  492 ; 
History  of  A  ncient  Egypt ,  by  Geo. 
Rawlinson,  M.  A.,  vol.  i.  p.  357. 

3  See  Herodotus ,  ii.  168. 


4  Archaic  Dictionary ,  Neith. 

5  Archaic  Dictionary ,  Pthah  ; 
Manuel  d’ Histoire  Ancienne  (Le- 
normant),  vol.  i.  p.  356. 

6  Diodorus  Siculus ,  1.  xvi.  p.  20. 

7  NtTouxpic,  Erastosthenes  inter- 
prets  Minerva  victorious. 


OF  TYANA. 


233 


observed  in  an  illumination  of  the  city.  On  a  particular 
night  all  who  intended  to  participate  in  the  fete  were 
required  to  light  a  number  of  lamps  in  the  open  air 
around  their  dwellings.1  And  it  was  considered  of  the 
greatest  consequence  to  do  honor  to  the  deity  by  a 
proper  and  unstinted  performance  of  this  rite.  Apol¬ 
lonius  spent  much  of  his  time  in  this  temple,  from 
which  he  copied  the  following  inscription:  “I  am  that 
which  has  been,  is,  and  will  be,  and  no  one  of  mortals 
has  lifted  my  robe.  The  fruit  which  I  brought  forth 
became  the  sun.”2  Every  fourth  year  the  festival  of 
Minerva  was  attended  by  all  Egypt.3  The  Nile  for 
several  days  was  overspread  with  barges  decked  with 
every  conceivable  ornament  and  device ;  each  barge 
had  its  musicians  and  dancers.  The  banks  of  the  river 
were  crowded  on  either  side  as  the  great  procession  of 
barges  passed ;  scurrilous  and  obscene  jests  were  in¬ 
dulged  in,  between  the  worshipers  and  spectators.4 
The  women  who  were  upon  the  water  conducted  them¬ 
selves  in  a  manner  too  immodest  to  be  described.5  On 


1  T-jj  bpvq  oooop.a  ussxat  Aoyvo- 
xatp..  The  festival  of  lamp  burning. 

2  Larcher’s  Notes  on  Herodotus , 
2  vols.  (London,  1844),  vol.  i.  p. 
275  ;  Pliny,  Nat.  History ,  b.  x.  p. 
258  ;  The  Geography  of  Herodotus , 
by  Talboys  Wheeler,  F.  R.  G.  S., 
P-374;  Geschichte  AEgypteus  (Wei- 
demann),  p.  155. 

3  Aphrodite,  Hera,  Juno,  Mylitta, 
were  all  the  same. 

4  Hist.  Ancient  Egypt  (Rawlin- 
son),  vol.  i.  p.  434. 

5  But  the  pagans  were  not  alone 
culpable  for  disgraceful  religious 

30 


festivals,  for  as  late  as  the  begin¬ 
ning  of  the  fifth  century  we  learn 
from  Buchardus,  that  on  the  most 
sacred  of  Christian  commemoration 
days  in  Africa,  dancing  was  prac¬ 
ticed  in  the  open  streets  of  a  most 
infamous  character,  accompanied 
with  lascivious  language  and  ges¬ 
tures,  to  the  utter  disgust  of  all  re¬ 
spectable  citizens,  and  accompanied 
by  prostitution.  These  vile  cere¬ 
monies  were  not  confined  to  the 
lower  orders  of  the  Christians,  for 
the  clergy  themselves  took  part  in 
them,  etc.,  etc. —  Knight’s  Worship 


234 


APOLLONIUS 


arriving  at  Sais  they  abandoned  themselves  to  mirth 
and  reveling,  and  more  wine  was  consumed  in  the  city 
during  this  festival  than  in  the  three  years  beside. 

This,  Apollonius  affirms,  is  not  an  overdrawn  relation 
of  all  the  festivals  of  Egypt.  There  were  many  other 
sacred  festivals  observed  at  Sais  during  the  year;  they 
were  usually  held  on  the  new  moon  and  harvest  time. 
The  mysteries  of  Isis  were  also  observed  there.  Apol¬ 
lonius  made  but  a  short  stay  at  this  holy  city,  being 
anxious  to  reach  Memphis  before  the  inundation  set 
in.  They  left  Sais,  and  on  the  third  day  arrived  at  He¬ 
liopolis,  “  City  of  the  Sun,”  1  which  had  once  been  pre¬ 
eminently  the  great  center  of  philosophy  and  learning ; 
it  was  the  Athens  of  Egypt.  Manetho,  the  historian, 
two  hundred  and  fifty  years  before  Apollonius,  had 
been  the  keeper  of  the  sacred  archives  at  Heliopolis.2 
Colotes,  a  follower  and  pupil  of  Epicurus,  was  a  native 
of  this  city.3  But  this  ancient  seat  of  learning  has  never 
since  the  siege  of  Cambyses  recovered  from  that  spolia¬ 
tion  ;  the  streets  were  deserted  ;  its  schools  were  empty 
and  its  teachers  silent.  Apollonius  was,  however,  en¬ 
abled  to  identify  the  houses  in  which  the  divine  Plato 
and  Eudoxus  dwelt  and  studied.4  He  also  visited  the 
neglected  obelisks  erected  by  Pheron,  son  of  Sesostris, 


of  the  Priapus,  p.  171.  The  com¬ 
mand  of  St.  Augustine  to  the  women 
of  his  day  who  attend  the  sacred 
Christian  festivals  needs  no  com¬ 
mentary  here. —  St.  Augustine,  Ser¬ 
mon,  clii. 

1  Daleth,  or  the  Homestead  of  the 
Nations  (Clark),  p.  44. 

2  Lepsius’  Letters  (Bohn  ed., 
1853),  p.  46;  Manetho  and  die 


Hundssternperiode  (Boeck,  1846) ; 
Hist.  Ancient  Egypt  (Rawlinson), 
vol.  ii.  pp.  2,  6,  9,  etc. 

3  Lepsius,  p.  448 ;  Hist,  of  Egypt 
(Brugsch),  vol.  i.  p.  404. 

4  Geographical  System  of  Herodo¬ 
tus  Examined,  etc.  (Rennell),  vol. 
ii.  p.  176;  Letters  of  Lepsius,  by 
Horners  (Bohn  ed.,  1853),  p. 

384- 


OF  TYANA. 


235 


out  of  gratitude  for  his  restoration  from  blindness ; 1  they 
were  dedicated  to  the  sun  (Helios) ;  these  things  en¬ 
couraged  Apollonius  in  the  study  of  philosophy  and 
the  practice  of  virtue.  Having  seen  all  that  was  worthy 
of  attention  at  Heliopolis,  they  commenced  their  jour¬ 
ney  through  the  canal  of  Trajan,  and  on  their  route 
crossed  the  canal  first  made  by  Necho,  and  which  now 
entered  ‘the  Nile  at  Babylon,  nearly  opposite  the  great 
pyramid.2  It  originally  united  with  the  Nile  at  Bu- 
bastes,  eight  hundred  stadia  lower  down,3  and,  pass¬ 
ing  through  the  Bitter  lakes,  entered  the  Red  Sea  at 
Clysmon,  about  eight  stadia  to  the  south  of  Arsinoe, 
now  (a.  d.  69)  far  inland,  but  which  was  formerly  a  sea¬ 
port  of  the  Red  Sea,4  the  sea  having  retreated.5 

Memphis,  situated  at  the  apex  of  the  Delta,6  was  the 
capital  of  Egypt  before  the  days  of  Alexandria,  and 
was  also  the  seat  of  the  worship  of  the  ox-god  as  the 
type  of  Osiris,  whose  festival  was  observed  in  the 
most  magnificent  manner  annually  at  the  commence¬ 
ment  of  the  Nile  inundation.7  The  bull  deity  of 


1  Cf.  Description  Historique  et 
Geographique  des  Plaines  d’ Heliop¬ 
olis,  et  de  Memphis  (Paris,  1755). 

2  Blavatsky ,  vol.  i.  p.  516. 

3  Here  was  the  ancient  temple  of 
goddess  Besheh,or  5'Apxefu«;  aypla, 
or  the  Grecian  Diana. 

4  Horner’s  Translation  of  Lep- 
sius’’  Letters  (Bohn  ed.,  1853),  p. 
441,  etc. 

5  EgpyPs  Place  in  Universal  His¬ 
tory,  vol.  iv.  p.  462. 

6  Rennell’s  Geography  of  Herodo¬ 
tus,  vol.  ii.  p.  1 15. 

7  This  worship  came  into  Egypt 


from  India.  The  country  (India) 
was  full  of  sacred  white  bulls.  And 
it  is  strange  how  this  bovine  wor¬ 
ship  fastened  itself  upon  the  Chris¬ 
tian  superstition  in  England. —  See 
Moor’s  Oriental  Fragments,  p.  516. 
As  late  as  the  sixteenth  century 
vows  and  oblations  were  made  to 
the  white  bull;  he  was  never  yoked, 
but  was  paraded  through  the  streets 
of,  Christian  cities  and  at  the  gates 
of  monasteries. —  See  Register  of  the 
Monastery  of  St.  Edmonds  bury, 
called  “ Corolla  variaf  by  Rev.  Wil¬ 
liam  Hawkins,  of  Pladleigh  (1834). 


236 


APOLLONIUS 


Memphis  was  an  incarnation  of  Pthah.  The  “  father  of 
beginnings,”  he  was  the  personification  of  embryonic 
life.  Apollonius  describes  his  statue  as  that  of  a  de¬ 
formed  child ;  on  his  head  was  figured  the  scarabeus, 
and  he  holds  two  serpents  against  his  chest,  and  like 
Horus  stands  upon  crocodiles.  His  most  wonder¬ 
ful  temple  was  at  Memphis,  and  near  it  was  another 
dedicated  to  the  pigmy  god  Cabeiri,  into  which  none 
but  priests  entered.1  On  the  south  of  the  temple  of 
Pthah  was  a  richly  adorned  inclosure,  in  which  was  the 
sanctuary  of  Aphrodite,  and  was  supposed  to  have 
originated  while  Helen  was  in  Egypt  under  the  protec¬ 
tion  of  Proteus.  Aphrodite  was  a  stranger  in  Egypt. 

Apollonius  says  the  most  elegant  temple  of  all  Mem¬ 
phis2  was  that  of  Isis,  which  he  examined,  as  well  as 
that  dedicated  to  Demeter,  twenty  stadia  from  the  city. 
It  was  a  large  and  handsome  structure.  The  Memphites 
delighted  in  all  kinds  of  lively  amusements,  buffoonery, 
and  bull- fights,  which  were  exhibited  frequently  in  the 
avenue  leading  to  the  temple  of  Vulcan.3  Here,  as 
before  stated,  and  at  many  other  places  in  Egypt  (as 
Ra  at  Heliopolis),  the  worship  of  the  ox  Apis  was  car¬ 
ried  to  the  highest  degree  of  extravagance.  They  did 
not  worship  him  as  an  emblem  or  symbol,  but  as  a 
god.  Strabo  says,  Apis  was  identical  with  Osiris,  and 
Apollonius  holds  that  the  worship  is  the  same  as  that 
of  Serapis  at  Alexandria, —  he  had  a  bull’s  head,  and 
was  often  called  Apis-Osiris,  or  Serapis.  Those  who 

1  Samuel  Sharpe’s  History  of  3  ’'Hcpaicto?,  son  ofZeus,  worker 

Egypt,  vol.  i.  p.  192.  in  metals  :  he  forged  the  thunder- 

2  Lepsius ’  Letters  (Bohn,  ed.,  bolts  of  Jupiter,  and  fabricated  the 

*853)5  P>  14;  Rawlinson’s  Hist,  of  shield  of  Achilles.  Lemnos  was  his 
Ancient  Egypt,  vol.  ii.  p.  511.  favorite  residence  on  earth. 


OF  TYANA. 


237 


wished  to  consult  this  god  first  burned  incense  on  an 
altar.  The  same  ceremonies  were  performed  in  honor 
of  Ammon-Ra,  the  sun-god.  And  they  also  sacrificed 
to  Ammon-Ra  on  the  fourth  day  of  every  month.1  Apol¬ 
lonius  says  there  were  eight  principal  gods  worshiped 
at  Memphis.  Damis  thinks  the  next  twenty  were 
equally  important. 

On  leaving  Memphis  they  retraced  their  steps  on  the 
left  of  the  Nile  to  the  pyramids,2  Apollonius  dis¬ 
coursing,  in  the  mean  time,  concerning  the  pyramids, 
which,  he  said,  were  not  the  work  of  the  Egyptians, 
first,  ‘‘because  they  resemble  none  of  their  structures 
at  the  present  time ;  secondly,  the  Egyptians  have 
always  been  a  very  religious  people,  sincerely  attached 
to  their  gods,  whom  they  recognize  everywhere  in 
statues,  inscriptions,  and  maxims ;  all  their  temples, 
tombs,  public  edifices  of  every  nature  soever,  even 
their  private  houses,  have  recognition  of  their  gods  in 
some  of  these  forms.3  But  the  pyramids,  the  largest 
structures  in  existence,  make  no  declaration,  no  prayer, 
have  no  god,  no  altar  of  sacrifice,  no  hierophant. 
Every  fact  known  to  us  of  the  pyramids  is  a  negation 
of  every  fact  known  to  us  of  the  Egyptians.”  4  In 
viewing  Egypt  from  the  summit  of  the  pyramids  (at 
7ct)pa|ji§sc;),  Apollonius  describes  it  as  a  vast  extended 
oblong  plain  or  valley,  lying  between  two  ranges  of 


1  Letters  from  Egypt ,  Ethiopia , 
etc.,  by  Dr.  Rich  and  Lepsius 
(Bohn,  1853),  pp.  126,  223;  Catul¬ 
lus  and  Tibullus,  Kelly  (Bohn,  ed.), 

p.  125. 

2  Daleth,  or  the  Homestead  of  the 

Nations  (Clark),  p.  57. 


3  Rawlinson’s  Ancient  Egypt ,  vol. 
i.  p.  209. 

4  A  rchaic  Dictionary ,  Pyramid  ; 
Pyramids  and  Temples  of  Gizeh 
(Petrie,  1885);  Wilkinson,  Popular 
Account  of  the  Egyptians,  vol.  ii. 
p.  287. 


238 


APOLLONIUS 


mountains,  the  Arabian  on  the  east,  and  the  Lybian 
on  the  west,  with  the  divine  Nile  dividing  it  in  nearly 
two  equal  parts,  and  beyond  which  on  either  side 
the  desert  spreads  out  a  sea  of  verdureless  immen¬ 
sity.  He  says  the  pyramids  cannot  be  viewed  without 
astonishment,  and  thinks  they  were  constructed,  firstly, 
and  chiefly,  as  tombs ;  secondly,  as  places  of  worship ; 
thirdly,  to  gratify  the  vanity  of  the  builders  —  a  people 
who  inhabited  the  country  anterior  to  the  Egyptians ; 1 
they  also  probably  were  for  purposes  similar  to  the 
pagodas  of  India,  which  were  always  erected  on  the 
banks  of  their  sacred  rivers,2  and  contained  a  well,  in 
which  were  preserved  the  holy  waters,  and  a  chamber 
in  which  the  priests  performed  the  mysterious  rites  of 
their  religion.  “  The  more  one  sees  of  the  great  pyra¬ 
mid,  ”  says  Apollonius,  “  the  more  does  he  become  im¬ 
pressed  with  its  vastness.”  And,  notwithstanding  the 
great  antiquity  of  Memphis,  the  pyramid  overshadowed 
its  builders.  The  constructors  are  unknown  ;  they  are 
without  names.  Apollonius  says  the  meaning  of  Mem¬ 
phis  is  “land  of  the  pyramid.” 

The  third  great  pyramid  which  they  visited  is  said 
to  have  been  built  by  Rhodopis,  a  Thracian  courtesan 
(ToSomoq  staipsc  'pvaivco?) ;  an  idea  which  Damis  scouts.3 


1  Cf.  The  Pyramids  of  Gizeh,  etc., 
3  vols.  (Col.  Vyse),  vol.  i.  p.  3. 

2  B  lava  t sky ,  vol.  i.  p.  520  ;  Tem¬ 
ples  of  Jagha-Nauth  and  Soma- 
Nauth  (Vincent),  p.  82. 

3  She  was  the  servant  of  Iadmin, 
a  Samian,  and  very  beautiful.  yEsop 
was  a  servant  to  the  same  master 
at  the  same  time.  Xanthus  took 
her  to  Egypt  to  gain  money  for  the 


use  of  her  person,  but  she  was  ran¬ 
somed  by  Charaxus,  of  Mitylene, 
the  brother  of  Sappho,  the  poetess. 
Rhodopis  continued  to  remain  in 
Egypt,  and  became  exceedingly  rich. 
It  is  said  that  one  day  as  Rhodopis 
was  bathing  at  Naucrates,  an  eagle 
took  up  one  of  her  sandals  and  flew 
away  with  it,  and  dropped  it  in  the 
lap  of  the  Egyptian  king;  struck  by 


OF  TYANA . 


239 


On  leaving  Memphis  they  pursued  their  journey  by 
boat;  in  the  mean  time,  as  they  progressed,  an  ex¬ 
change  of  knowledge  took  place  everywhere  between 
their  party  and  such  learned  Egyptians  as  they  chanced 
to  meet.1  Damis  says  in  the  course  of  their  navigation 
they  passed  innumerable  towns  and  villages,  and  visited 
many  cities  and  temples,  the  mere  mention  of  which 
had  become  tedious  to  him,  for  Egypt  swarmed 
with  inhabitants,  and  abounded  in  more  towns  and 
cities  than  any  other  country  on  earth.2  Many  of  the 
villages  were  adorned  with  trees  of  different  species,  as 
palms,  peach,  and  groves  of  acacia.  On  the  Lybian 
side  a  large  region  had  of  old  been  overflowed  by  the 
Nile,  and  having  no  outlet  the  water  became  stagnant ; 
to  remedy  this,  an  ancient  king,  Amenemhat  III.,  had 
dug  out  the  mud,  and  constructed  a  lake,  which 
he  connected  with  the  Nile  by  a  canal  at  Herodea, 
thus  preventing  the  overflow.  In  this  great  lake  were 
many  islands,  with  temples  and  obelisks ;  also  a  city, 
sacred  to  the  crocodiles  ;  it  was  called  Moeris,  after  the 
name  of  the  king,  but  Apollonius  says  Mceris  signifies 
“marsh,”  from  which  it  is  more  likely  to  have  been 
derived.3  Antinoe,  Lycopolis,  Abydos,  Tentyra,  were 
all  visited  and  explored. 


the  strange  occurrence,  and  the 
beauty  of  the  sandal,  he  took  no 
rest  until  he  had  found  out  the  fair 
owner,  and  when  he  had  discovered 
her  he  made  her  his  queen. — Lar- 
cher’s  Notes  on  Herodotus ,  vol.  i.  p. 

363- 

1  Berwick,  c.  xliii.  p.  299. 

2  20,000  inhabited  cities,  says  He¬ 
rodotus,  ii.  177. 


3  Apollonius  discoursed  upon  all 
the  great  questions  which  had  agi¬ 
tated  the  savants  of  the  world  for 
ages  before  his  day.  Whence  the 
people  of  Egypt?  The  age  of  the 
pyramids  ?  Their  architects  ?  The 
cause  of  the  overflow  of  the  Nile  ? 
Its  source  ?  And  he  compared  the 
valley  of  the  Nile  to  the  Indus 
in  its  flora,  fauna,  Nile  overflow; 


240 


APOLLONIUS 


At  Coptos,  the  point  where  the  route  of  commerce 
diverged  from  the  Nile  and  crossed  the  desert  to  the 
sea-port  Berenice,  Apollonius  had  contemplated  remain¬ 
ing,  to  await  expected  news  from  Rome.  This  was  a 
place  of  great  business  activity.  Damis  declared  that 
the  passage-boats  and  merchant-ships  outnumbered 
those  of  Alexandria ;  and  the  uproar  and  confusion  of 
boatmen,  sailors,  merchants,  and  camel-drivers  at  the 
landing  were  past  endurance  ;  each  seemed  engaged  in 
a  struggle  which  comprehended  life  and  death,  and  all 
this  tumult  and  bluster,  Damis  says,  culminated  like  the 
“  labors  of  Sisyphus,  in  accomplishing  nothing,”  but 
noise.  Berenice  was  a  city  built  by  Philadelphus  on 
the  Red  Sea,  for  the  accommodation  of  commerce ; 1  it 
was  twelve  days’  journey  from  Coptos,  and  all  the  trans¬ 
portation  between  these  two  depots  was  performed  upon 
camels.  Merchandise  from  the  East  was  unladen  at 
Berenice,  and  conveyed  overland  to  Coptos,  and  sent 
down  the  Nile  to  Alexandria,  whence  it  was  distributed 
to  the  ports  of  Greece  and  Rome,  while  goods  intended 
for  the  East  were  shipped  at  Berenice.  Merchants  and 


and  on  all  subjects  except  the 
source  of  the  Nile  he  probably 
knew  nearly  as  much  as  we  do  to¬ 
day. 

Mr.  Tooke,  in  his  translation  of 
Lucian ,  points  out  the  route  philos¬ 
ophy  took  from  the  Brachmans  to 
the  Ethiopians,  and  thence  to  the 
Egyptians,  and  he  perfectly  agrees 
with  Herder  (both  of  whom  confirm 
Diodorus  Siculus,  by  Count  Volney 
and  by  Voltaire)  that  the  Egyptians 
were  a  people  of  southern  Asia,  and 
that  they  came  into  Egypt  by  sea  at 


Upper  Egypt,  and  spread  them¬ 
selves  down  the  Nile ;  this  would 
seem  to  be  so,  inasmuch  as  the 
oldest  Egyptian  remains,  and  the 
rudest,  are  to  be  found  in  Upper 
Egypt.  —  Voyage  d'Egypte  et  de 
Nubie,  par  F.  L.  Norden,  2  vols. 
(Copen. ),  vol.  ii.  p.  184,  etc. ;  Sabcean 
Researches,  a  Series  of  Essays  de¬ 
livered  at  the  Royal  Institute  of 
Great  Britain,  by  John  Landseer,  F. 
R.  S.  (1823),  4to,  p.  91. 

1  Indian  Travels  of  Apollonius 
of  Tyana  (Priaulx),pp.  160,  i6i,etc. 


OF  TYANA. 


241 


traders  usually  remained  with  their  goods  until  the 
dog-star  rose 1  with  the  sun,  when  they  set  sail  for  the 
frankincense  country,  which  Apollonius  supposes  to 
be  the  country  of  the  Indians.2  From  Coptos  Apollo¬ 
nius  and  his  disciples  proceeded  by  camels  to  Thebes, 
“  The  City  of  Thrones,” 3  the  sight  of  which  kindled  anew 
his  admiration  for  the  old  monarchs  chronicled  in  the 
books  of  Homer.  “Memphis,”  said  he,  “is  older  than 
history,  and  yet  it  was  built  as  a  rival  of  Thebes.4  Of  all 
the  states  of  Egypt,  Thebes  was  the  most  religious ; 5 
here  Osiris  sat  upon  a  throne  of  gold,  in  the  great  tem¬ 
ple  of  Karnak,  which  was  approached  through  a  sacred 
way  of  crouching  figures  (sphinxes),  with  ram’s  heads. 
Damis  says  there  were  sixteen  hundred  of  them.6  The 


1  Dositheus,  a  Greek  astronomer 
(b.  C.  220),  says  the  dog-star  rises 
heliacally  twenty-three  days  after 
midsummer;  Merton  says  twenty- 
eight  days,  and  Euctemon  thirty-one 
days.  The  Egyptian  coins  of  Alex¬ 
andria  and  Thebes,  celebrating  this 
astronomical  event,  were  very  nu¬ 
merous,  and  all  the  Roman  coins 
bearing  the  fabled  return  of  the 
phoenix  had  a  similar  signification. — 
Humphrey’s  Coin  Manual,  vol.  ii. 
pp.  558-676.  See  also,  Bentley’s 
Hindu  Astronomy. 

2  History  of  Egypt,  etc. ,  by  Sam¬ 
uel  Sharpe,  2  vols.  (1859),  vol.  ii. 
pp.  93-154.  The  whereabouts  of 
the  frankincense  country  spoken  of 
by  Apollonius  we  are  all  unable  to 
conj  ecture.  But  that  a  large  Rom  an 
trade  was  carried  on  with  various 
places  in  India  is  confirmed  in  the 
frequency  that  Roman  coins  occur 

31 


in  the  archaeological  researches  of 
that  country ;  and  the  great  quanti¬ 
ties  in  which  they  are  found,  lead 
us  to  suppose  that  they  had  been 
secreted  by  merchants  who  had  ex¬ 
pected  at  some  future  time  to  recover 
them.  It  is  but  a  few  years  since  that 
a  great  quantity  of  Roman  coins  were 
dug  up  at  Calicut ;  circumstances  at 
once  led  to  the  supposition,  from 
the  date  of  the  coinage  and  other 
facts,  that  they  had  been  deposited 
by  some  Alexandrian  merchant,  who 
had  never  returned. 

3  Sharpe’s  History  of  Egypt,  etc., 
vol.  i.  p.  96;  Pyramids  of  Gizeh, 
and  a  Voyage  into  Upper  Egypt, 
by  Col.  Howard  Vyse,  vol.  i.  p.  30. 

4  Ancient  Art  and  Mythology 
(Knight),  p.  106. 

5  Archaic  Dictionary ,  Thebes. 

6  Daleth ,  or  the  Homestead  of  the 
Nations  (Clark),  p.  197. 


242 


APOLLONIUS 


sun-god,  Phra,  also  had  a  magnificent  temple  at  Thebes. 
Here  Maut,  ‘the  Mother,’  the  passive  principle,  was 
worshiped  in  connection  with  Ammon- Ra.  There 
were  four  great  temples  here,  dedicated  to  Jupi¬ 
ter  Ammon.  As  Karnak  was  the  sacred  region  of 
Thebes,  so  was  Luxor1  the  region  of  its  palaces.” 
“Thebes  stood,”  said  Apollonius,  “in  the  midst  of  a 
plain  sixteen  hundred  stadia  wide,  guarded  by  mountains 
on  either  side ;  on  the  west  it  extended  to  the  hills  ;  it 
was  two  hundred  stadia  in  ambit.”  Spending  no  unnec¬ 
essary  time  at  Thebes,  Apollonius  and  his  disciples 
pressed  on  to  Latopolis  and  Ombos.  At  the  last  named 
city  was  a  grand  double  temple  where  they  worshiped 
two  forms  of  Horus,  sun-god,  and  son  of  Isis  and  Osiris. 
The  crocodile  was  sacred  to  this  city,  and  was  wor¬ 
shiped  in  the  form  of  the  crocodile-headed  god,  Sarak.2 
While  at  Tentyra,  or  Denderah,  they  worshiped  the 
goddess  Athor,  and  captured  and  killed  crocodiles  (''octs 
TuoXspiooc  TuspisTuooat).  This  created  disturbances,  and 


1  The  magnificence  of  this  region 
(Luxor),  the  parent  of  which  was  in 
India,  has,  by  the  grandeur  of  its 
enduring  monuments,  excited  the 
admiration  of  all  ages.  Beauty  was 
crowned  at  Luxor  (city  of  Thebes). 
It  was  so  named  from  Lukshur,  in 
Beloochistan.  The  present  town  is 
in  obscurity.  The  splendor  of  the 
architecture  of  the  Egyptian  Luxor 
will  be  the  admiration  of  many 
generations  to  come. —  See  Its  Five 
Greater  Temples ,  by  de  W.  Abney. 
It  was  connected  with  the  capital 
and  temples  of  Karnak  ( Blavatsky , 
vol.  i.  p.  554),  at  Thebes  by  a 


grand  avenue  of  crio-sphinxes,  a 
mile  and  a  half  long,  terminating  in 
obelisks  and  colossi.  The  great 
colonnade  along  the  river  front  was 
the  most  magnificent  structure  in 
existence ;  it  was  erected  by  Horus. 
—  Geographical  System  of  Herodotus 
Explained ,  etc.  (Rennell),  vol.  i.  p. 
247  ;  Archaic  Dictionary ,  Biograph¬ 
ical, ,  Historical,  and  Mythological, 
etc.,  by  W.  R.  Cooper,  F.  R.  A.  S., 
art.  Luxor. 

2  Analysis  of  Antient  Mythology 
(Bryant),  vol.  iii.  p.  257;  Mythology 
and  Fables  of  the  Ancients  (Banier), 
vol.  i.  p.  551. 


OF  TYANA. 


243 


the  two  cities,  although  only  about  one  hundred  miles 
apart,  were  continually  at  war,  and  were  alternately 
sacked  until  the  Roman  armies  put  an  end  to  it.1  The 
holy  animals  of  the  different  cities  had  their  own  sacred 
buildings  and  temples ;  they  were  washed,  anointed, 
richly  appareled,  and  slept  at  night  on  soft  cushions. 
Each  house  had  its  holy  beast,  and  the  sorrow  of  the 
household  when  it  died  was  like  that  for  a  beloved 
child.  If  the  sacred  cat  died,  all  the  members  of  the 
household  cut  off  the  hair  of  their  eyebrows,  but  if  a 
dog  died  they  shaved  their  head  entire  (Sopsovmt  tyjv 
aXyjv).  And  the  whole  nation  went  into  mourning 
on  the  death  of  the  sacred  ox ;  he  had  certain  marks 
which  betokened  his  divinity,  and  when  duly  recog¬ 
nized  was  lodged  in  a  splendid  temple,  and  had  divine 
honors  paid  to  him.2 

With  all  these  absurdities  Apollonius  became  highly 
provoked.3  As  they  approached  the  sacred  island 


1  The  quarrels  growing  out  of 
this  antagonism  are  celebrated  in 
the  Fifteenth  Satire  of  Juvenal. 

2  Osiris  is  sometimes  represented 
with  a  bull’s  head. — Herodotus,  iii. 
28.  Apis  in  Memphis  was  re¬ 
garded  as  the  eidolon  or  visible 
representation  of  the  soul  of  Osiris. 
—  Plutarch,  Isis  and  Osiris. 

3  Wolves  had  their  sacred  cities; 
every  city  and  every  month  had 
their  divinities,  in  the  form  of  asps, 
vultures,  crocodiles,  fishes,  cats, 
dogs,  and  these  divinities  had  their 
sacred  history.  There  was  an 
Egyptian  work,  by  Apollonius,  sur- 
named  Orapios,  mentioned  by  The- 
ophilus,  patriarch  of  Antioch,  en¬ 


titled  The  Divine  Book,  and  which 
gave  the  secret  history  and  origin 
of  all  the  gods  of  Egypt ;  and  an¬ 
other  sacred  work,  spoken  of  by 
Ammianus  Marcellinus,  which  gave 
the  precise  age  and  genealogy  of  the 
bull  Apis. —  Cf  Iamblichus,  de  mys- 
teriis  vFgypiorum,  Chaldceorum,  As- 
sy riorum ;  Proclus,  in  Platonicum 
Alcibiadem  ;  Proclus,  de  sacrificio  et 
magia  (Aldus,  1497),  fol.  in  ed. 

A  tomb  opened  at  Marietti  bore 
this  inscription  :  “  This  tomb  was 
sealed  in  the  thirteenth  year  of 
Rameses  II.”  (3700  years  ago). 
The  hieroglyphics  inside  the  tomb 
attest  that  herein  was  deposited  the 
god  Apis,  who  was  born  in  the  six- 


244 


APOLLONIUS 


of  Philse,  “the  beautiful/’  Apollonius  felt  a  divine 
impulse  imparted  from  the  hallowed  history  of  the 
place.1  Here  .Osiris  rested,  and  the  most  solemn  oath 
of  an  Egyptian  is,  “  By  him  who  slept  at  Philse,”2 — for 
while  Philae  observed  the  worship  of  Isis  and  Osiris, 
the  formulary  and  licentiousness  of  an  Alexandrian 
priesthood  were  here  unknown.  Her  oracles  and 
sacred  groves  had  not  yet  been  corrupted  by  the  gold 
of  the  conquerors ; 3  and  so  venerated  was  the  city  that 
kings  uncrowned  and  philosophers  uncovered  them¬ 
selves  on  entering  its  gates.  It  was  thought  more 
noble  to  rule  over  this  island,  nine  stadia  long,  than  to 
direct  the  destinies  of  all  Egypt ;  and  every  devout 
Egyptian  bowed  his  head  in  humility  when  Philse  was 
named.  “  All  the  great  temples,”  says  Apollonius, 
“had  their  festivals,  but  Philse  surpassed  them  all.” 
He  paid  his  devotions  in  the  great  temple  of  Am¬ 
mon- Ra,  and  departed  for  Meroe,  at  which  was  a 
temple  of  Jupiter  Ammon.4  He  explored  the  pyra- 

teenth  year  of  Necho,  on  the  seventh  3  It  was  under  the  sacred  groves 
of  Paophi;  that  he  was  installed  in  of  Philse  that  Plutarch  wrote  his 
the  temple  of  Pthah,  in  the  first  year  treatise  on  Isis  and  Osiris.  He 
of  Psammetichus  II.,  on  the  ninth  dedicated  it  to  Kleia,  the  high- 
of  Epiphi ;  that  the  manifestation  priestess  of  the  temple,  for  she  had 
of  god  toward  heaven  (died)  took  inspired  its  pages.  This  philoso- 
place  in  the  twelfth  year  of  Oura-  pher  was  unable  to  explain  the 
phres,  on  the  twenty-first  of  Payni ;  mythology  of  the  Egyptian  religion, 
and  that  he  lived  seventeen  years,  but  he  found  a  clear  and  definite 
six  months,  and  five  days. —  See  meaning  in  these  two  great  deities. 
Mariettas  Choix  de  Monuments  et  de  Herodotus  says,  “  The  only  gods 
Dessins  de  converts  ou  executes  pen -  really  worshiped  in  Egypt.” 
dant  le  Deblaiement  du  Serapeum  4  Meroe  was  located  in  Ethiopia, 
de  Memphis,  par  M.  Aug.  Marietti  called  an  island  by  the  ancients,  al- 
( Paris,  1857),  p.  11,  etc.  though  not  really  so.  It  was  the 

1  Daleth,  or  the  Homestead  of  the  chief  emporium  of  trade  between 

Nations  (Clark),  p.  243.  Egypt,  Ethiopia,  Arabia,  and  India. 

2  Archaic  Dictionary ,  Philse.  —Lucan’s  Pharsalia,  b.  iv.  1333. 


OF  TYANA. 


245 


mids  of  Meroe,  and  went  to  the  confines  of  Ethiopia, 
on  the  east  side  of  the  Nile,  called  Sicaminus,1  the 
“  Ultima  Thule  ”  of  Egypt.  At  this  place  four  great 
ways  meet  —  commercial  routes.  Here  it  is  that  the 
Greeks  and  Egyptians  transact  trade  with  the  barba¬ 
rians,  and  the  various  articles  of  merchandise  are 
here  piled  up  in  heaps  waiting  for  exchange  and 
guarded  by  only  a  single  unarmed  sentinel ;  the  traders 
never  meet.  The  merchandise  consisted  of  gold  in 
wedges,  unstamped,  and  flax,  elephants’  tusks,  and 
many  varieties  of  aromatic  roots,  perfumes,  spices, 
and  gums.  This  is  the  method  in  which  trade  is  car¬ 
ried  on  with  the  barbarians  of  inner  Ethiopia,2 —  the 
Greeks  and  Egyptians  placing  in  heaps  as  much  of 
their  goods,  consisting  of  cotton  stuffs  and  implements 
of  the  chase  or  war  and  trinkets  for  personal  adorn¬ 
ment,  as  they  are  willing  to  barter  for  a  corresponding 
quantity  of  the  goods  of  the  Ethiopians,  and  then 
retire ;  this  is  an  offer  for  exchange.  If  the  savage 
accepts  the  terms,  he  removes  the  merchandise  left  by 
the  Greek  or  Egyptian,  and  leaves  his  to  be  taken  by 
them  ;  this  completes  the  transaction.3 

Then,  as  now,  the  caravan  traversed  the  sandy  desert, 
and  came  laden  with  spice  and  perfume,  gold  and  ivory. 
Then  also,  as  now,  came  the  long  train,  the  black  slave- 
gang,  prisoners  from  tribes  who  had  forfeited  their 
lives  according  to  the  code  of  savage  warfare.  Egypt 
was  the  birthplace  of  bondage  long  ere  the  days  of 

1  Ptolemy  calls  it  tspa  aixapivo?.  3  The  Technical  History  of  Com- 

He  is  the  only  geographer  who  merce ,  etc.,  by  John  Yeats,  LL.  D. 
mentions  it.  (1872)7  pp.  33—5 7 ;  Description  de 

2  Herodotus,  iv.  186;  Daleth ,  or  TEgypte,  etc.,  par  Maillet,  p.  190; 

Homestead  of  the  Nations ,  p.  243.  Primitive  Culture  (Figuier),  p.  310. 


246 


APOLLONIUS  4 


Apollonius.  And  this  doomed  swarthy  helot  of  the  serv¬ 
ing  caste  has  ever  catered  to  the  luxury  and  administered 
to  the  avarice  and  sensuality  of  the  dominant  race. 
Their  feet  have  worn  a  pathway  deep  into  the  soil  and 
character  of  Egypt  in  an  unbroken  succession  from 
Nubia  to  the  Mediterranean,  beginning  with  the  earliest 
times.1  This  unceasing  march  of  the  slave  caravan 
has  outlived  all  changes  and  survived  all  dynasties.2 
From  Ethiopia  they  returned  to  Thebes,  and,  under 
the  direction  of  a  young  man  named  Timasion,  who 
had  strayed  into  their  camp  while  at  Thebes,  Apollo¬ 
nius  visited  Memnon,  “  Son  of  the  Morning.”  This 
statue  was  erected  in  commemoration  of  the  son 
of  Aurora,  who  slew  Antilochus  at  Troy,  and  was 
himself  slain  by  Achilles.3  The  two  colossi  stood  side 
by  side,  and  were  sixty  feet  above  the  plain,  and  looked 
toward  the  rising  sun.  They  were  made  of  black  mar¬ 
ble,  and  measured  eighteen  feet  each  across  the  shoul¬ 
ders.  One  had  been  thrown  down,  during  the  reign 
of  Tiberius  Caesar,  by  an  earthquake,  and  was  now 
without  a  head.4  The  feet  were  united,  according  to 
the  fashion  of  sculpture  in  the  time  of  Daedalus  the 
Cretan,  and  the  hands  rested  on  the  base  on  which  it 
was  placed,  and,  although  sitting,  looked  as  if  about  to 
rise.  The  eyes  were  long  and  pensive,  the  forehead 
low.5  Damis,  who  also  saw  them,  says  they  had  gentle 
features,  and  that  at  the  rising  of  the  sun  Memnon 

1  Egypt's  Place  in  Universal  His-  3  Horner’s  Translation  of  Letters 
tory ;  also,  Journey  to  Two  of  the  of  Lepsius  (Bohn  ed.),  p.  257. 

Oases  of  Upper  Egypt  (Edmonstone,  4  Pausanias ,  vol.  i.  p.  123  ;  Tact - 

1822).  tus ,  book  ii.  p.  61. 

2  Pliilostratus,  leones  (Greek  ed. ),  5  Apollonius  de  Tyane  (Chassang), 

p.  167.  p.  235. 


OF  TYANA. 


24  7 

uttered  sweet  and  prolonged  sounds,  and  that  it  pos¬ 
sessed  the  property  of  shedding  tears  at  pleasure.1 

From  the  beginning  of  the  reign  of  Augustus,  Mem- 
non  has  been  visited  by  Greek  worthies  and  tourists, 
many  of  whom  had  inscriptions  engraven  upon  the 
statues  to  commemorate  the  event  of  their  visit.  One 
of  these  inscriptions  is  as  follows : 

In  the  seventeenth  year  of  the  Emperor  Caesar 
Augustus  Germanicus,  “  I,  Titus  Petronius  Secundus, 
Praefect,  heard  Memnon  at  the  first  hour  in  the  Ides  of 
March,  and  gave  honor  in  Greek  verses  below.”2 

Again,  Viaticus  Theramenes  made  this  inscription 
when  he  heard  Memnon  in  the  Calends  of  June,  at  the 
opening  of  the  lotus  blossom  : 

“  Servianus  being  for  the  third  time  consul,  with  him 
was  his  wife  Asidonia  Calpe.” 


1  Tacitus  says,  “  Germanicus  saw 
the  celebrated  statue  of  Memnon, 
A.  D.  19,  which,  though  wrought  in 
stone,  yet  when  played  on  by  the 
rays  of  the  morning  sun  returns  a 
vocal  sound.”  In  Desmontier’s  Let¬ 
ters  on  Mythology  there  is  one  of  the 
prettiest  accounts  we  have  of  the 
statue.  I  will  give  it  in  his  own 
words :  “  On  eleva  dans  la  suite 
une  statue  de  marbre  noir,  qui 
representait  Memnon  assis,  les 
mains  elevees  et  la  bouche  entr’ou- 
verte  comme  s’il  allait  parler.  A 
peine  le  premier  rayon  de  1’ Aurore 
frappit-il  le  corps  de  la  statue  qu’elle 
prenait  un  air  riant  et  paraissait 
s’animer  ;  mais  aussitot  que  le  rayon 
atteignoit  la  bouche,  il  en  sortait 
un  son  harmonieux  et  tendre,  qui 


semblait  dire,  Bonjour,  ma  mere;  le 
soir  au  moment,  ou  1’ Aurore  allait 
eclairer  l’autre  hemisphere,  un  su- 
perfaible  et  plain tif  semblait  dire, 
Ma  mere,  adieu.”— Cf.  5Ex  t<£v 
Krqalov,  5AYa6apX^o^  Me/xvovoc 
taoptxow  ’Aimavoo  IpY]ptx*q 

ual  ’Avvt^a'ixYj  (Henr  Stephanus, 

1557). 

Jacob  Bryant  says,*'4 Memnon,  the 
Ethiopian,  never  was  at  Troy  in 
Phrygia,  but  it  was  at  Troy  in  Egypt 
at  which  he  fought  and  was  slain.” 
— Dissertations  on  the  War  of  Troy , 
by  Jacob  Bryant;  Mythology  and 
Fables  of  the  Ancients  (Banier),  vol. 
iv.  p.  329. 

2  Cf  (Appendix)  Pyramids  of 
Gizeh,  etc.,  by  Perring  and  Vyse, 
vol.  iii.  pp.  1  to  200. 


248 


APOLLONIUS 


Some  of  the  Greek  verses  were  : 

“  Hearing  the  sacred  voice  of  Memnon,  I  longed  for 
thee,  O  my  .mother,  and  desired  also  that  thou  might- 
est  hear  it.” 

“  Csecilia  Trebulla,  thy  mother,  O  renowned  Mem¬ 
non,  the  goddess,  the  rosy-fingered  Aurora,  has 
rendered  thee  vocal  for  me,  who  have  desired  to  hear 
thee.” 

Another:  “Once  the  son  of  Saturn,  great  Jove,  had 
made  thee  monarch  of  the  East;  now  thou  art  but  a 
stone;  and  it  is  from  stone  that  thy  voice  proceeds.” 

Damis  says :  “  The  similar  attestations  engraved 

upon  the  monuments  would  fill  a  volume.”1 

Apollonius  is  very  reserved  concerning  the  vocal 
powers  and  genealogy  of  Memnon;2  he  describes  the 
statue  as  a  representation  of  a  sacrifice  to  the  Ethio¬ 
pian  Sol  and  Eoan,  Eos  or  Aurora,  and  then  dismisses 
the  whole  subject  and  proceeds,3  “  Mounted  on  camels 


l  Lepsius,  Konigsbuch  der  Alten 
AI gyp  ter,  vol.  i.  p.  68. 

Grotius  relates  out  of  an  ecclesi¬ 
astical  writer  :  “  That  there  was  a 
statue  of  Apollonius  in  Tyana  that 
spoke,  being  actuated  by  some  as¬ 
sistant  Daemon.  It  declared  certain 
verses  to  a  young  student  of  phi¬ 
losophy  in  Tyana  concerning  the 
immortality  of  the  soul.  He  recited 
the  verses  to  his  fellow-students  in 
a  frantic  posture,  starting  out  of  his 
sleep,  and  avowing  that  Apollonius 
was  then  present,  though  none  saw 
him  there  but  himself.”  Grotius 
further  adds,  that  the  mouth  of 
the  statue  was  soon  closed  by  the 


power  of  Christ,  and  the  preaching 
of  the  Gospel. —  An  Explanation  of 
the  Grand  Mystery  of  Godliness ,  or 
a  True  and  Faithful  Representation 
of  the  Everlasting  Gospel  of  Our 
Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ,  the 
only,  etc.,  etc.,  by  H.  D.  More, 
D.  D.  (London,  1660),  p.  151. 

2  If  the  ancients  did,  as  we,  regard 
the  voice  of  Memnon  a  miracle,  the 
manifestation  of  a  godhead  to  man, 
we  have  for  its  attestation  the  most 
perfect  chain  of  testimony  ever  of¬ 
fered  to  prove  a  miracle. —  See  La 
Statue  Vocale  de  Memnon,  etc.  (Le- 
tronne),  Qua.  Rev.,  No.  276,  p.  533. 

3  Pausanias,  vol.  i.  p.  123. 


OF  TYANA. 


249 


we  set  out  for  the  dwellings  of  the  gy mnosophists.” 
Damis,  however,  says  that  Memnon  was  the  son  of 
Aurora,  who  is  said  to  have  been  slain  at  Troy;  but 
that  he  did  not  die  at  Troy  as  has  been  given  out,  for 
he  was  never  there,  but  always  remained  in  Ethio¬ 
pia,  where  he  reigned  for  five  generations.  The 
Ethiopians  are  the  longest-lived  of  mortals,  and  they 
still  lament  Memnon  as  a  youth  cut  off  by  a  premature 
death.1 

The  gymnosophists  were  a  sect  of  philosophers  of 
Upper  Egypt,  whose  priests  performed  their  religious 
sacraments  in  a  state  of  perfect  nudity  (yo^voc).  To 
visit  these  philosophers  was  the  principal  object  of 
the  journey  of  Apollonius  to  Ethiopia.  His  desire  was 
to  compare  the  tenets,  philosophy,  and  mode  of  life 


1  We  need  not  remind  the  reader 
how,  since  the  commencement  of 
the  present  century,  the  patient  in¬ 
dustry  of  eminent  men  has  poured 
a  flood  of  light  upon  ancient  Egypt. 
Not  only  have  its  pyramids  and 
sepulchral  chambers  been  explored, 
but  its  hieroglyphics  deciphered, 
and  its  inscriptions  read.  By  these 
means  much  has  been  brought  to 
light,  and  by  the  tablets  at  the  back 
of  the  colossi  of  Memnon,  we  learn 
that  both  represent  King  Ameno- 
phis  the  Third,  who  began  his  reign 
about  fourteen  hundred  years  be¬ 
fore  Apollonius.  They  were  de¬ 
signed  as  an  entrance  to  an  avenue 
leading  to  the  temple-palace  of 
Amenophis,  about  eleven  hundred 
feet  further  inland.  This  palace- 
temple,  once  so  richly  adorned  with 

32 


its  sculpture,  sphinxes,  and  col¬ 
umns,  is  now  a  mere  heap  of  sand¬ 
stone.  Many  centuries  later  the 
Greeks  began  to  settle  in  Egypt ; 
they  found  the  easternmost  statue 
of  the  pair  had  been  shattered 
down  to  the  waist.  This  was  its 
condition  when  Apollonius  saw  it. 
And  it  may  be  as  aptly  said  here  as 
elsewhere,  that  with  all  the  mark¬ 
ings  and  engravings  that  have  been 
discovered  in  Egypt  not  a  single 
scratch  upon  any  stone  from  Alex¬ 
andria  to  Meroe  confirms  the  pres¬ 
ence  of  the  Hebrews ;  nor  is  there 
any  history  to  confirm  the  Scripture 
story  of  Hebrew  Captivity, —  not 
one  line,  not  one  word, —  and  every 
purported  discovery  of  this  character 
is  a  fraud.  —  See  Prophet  of  Naza¬ 
reth ,  etc.,  p.  455. 


250 


APOLLONIUS 


of  the  Egyptian  gymnosophists  with  those  of  India, 
with  whom  he  had  lived  so  long  in  their  own  country,1 
to  the  end  -of  determining  whether  they  were  of  the 
same  race,  and  practiced  the  same  rites.2 

They  had  proceeded  but  a  short  way  on  their  journey 
when  they  met  a  person  dressed  after  the  manner  of 
Memphis ;  he  seemed  like  an  idle  lounger,  having  no 
decided  object  in  view.  On  inquiry,  it  was  ascertained 
that  he  had  committed  an  involuntary  manslaughter, 
and  to  escape  the  penalty  by  the  laws  of  Memphis, 
where  the  crime  was  committed,  he  must  leave  the  coun¬ 
try  and  take  shelter  with  the  gymnosophists,  and  when 
he  is  purified  and  absolved  by  them  he  may  return  to 
his  home,  but  not  till  atonement  has  been  made  for 
his  crime  by  visiting  the  tomb  of  the  deceased  and 


1  Priaulx,  Indian  Travels  of 
Apollonius  of  Tyana  (Quaritch, 
London). 

2  Porphyry,  treating  of  a  class  of 
religious  men  among  the  Indians 
whom  the  Greeks  were  accustomed 
to  call  gymnosophists,  mentions  two 
orders  of  them :  one,  the  Brach- 
manes,  and  the  other  the  Sama- 
noeans.  The  Brachmanes  receive 
their  religious  knowledge,  like  the 
priesthood,  in  right  of  birth;  but 
the  Samanoeans  are  select,  and  con¬ 
sist  of  persons  who  choose  to  prose¬ 
cute  divine  studies.  The  Brach¬ 
manes  are  of  the  same  race,  an 
hereditary  order  of  priests,  while 
the  Samanoeans  are  selected  from 
the  whole  Indian  nation.  —  Por¬ 
phyry,  de  Abstinentia ,  lib.  iv. 

Clemens  Alexandrinus  describes 
the  Brachman  sect  as  worshiping 


Hercules  and  Pan.  He  says : 
“  Philosophy  anciently  flourished 
among  the  barbarians,  and  was 
afterward  introduced  among  the 
Greeks,  as  the  prophets  of  the 
Egyptians,  the  Chaldees  of  the  As¬ 
syrians.”  The  gymnosophists  do 
not  inhabit  towns  or  houses;  they 
are  clad  with  the  bark  of  trees  and 
eat  acorns  and  drink  water;  they 
do  not  marry  nor  procreate  chil¬ 
dren.  The  religion  which  they 
practice  is  conformable  with  the 
Vedas,  as  well  as  their  manners 
and  opinions.  Philostratus  and 
Hierocles  say  they  worship  the 
sun.  Strabo  and  Arrian  speak  of 
them  as  performing  sacrifices  for 
the  benefit  of  the  nation,  as  well  as 
individuals .  — A rrianus  Nicomedien- 
sis  et  Quintus  Curtius  Rufus  (Ma- 
nermann,  1835),  p.  142. 


OF  TYANA. 


251  . 


offering  there  a  sacrifice  of  no  costly  value.  And  whilst 
waiting  for  admission  to  the  gymnosophists,  he  is 
obliged  to  wander  about  the  borders  of  their  habitation 
until  they  become  satisfied  that  he  is  truly  penitent, 
when  they  take  compassion  on  him.  This  penitent 
had  been  supplicating  for  pardon  seven  months,  and 
had  not  yet  obtained  it.  All  of  this  Timasion  com¬ 
municated  to  Apollonius.  “  They  are  probably  igno¬ 
rant,”  said  Apollonius,  “  that  Phileseus,  whom  this  man 
slew  in  an  angry  quarrel,  was  a  descendant  from 
Thamus,  the  Egyptian,  who  formerly,  out  of  revenge, 
ravaged  the  country  of  their  predecessors.”  Tima¬ 
sion,  astonished  at  this  revelation  of  Apollonius,  ex¬ 
claimed  :  “  How  happened  this  ?  ”  “  In  this  wise,” 

said  Apollonius:  “Thamus  meditated  a  revolution  in 
the  government  of  Memphis,  and  had  already  resorted 
to  acts  of  violence,  when  the  gymnosophists  repri¬ 
manded  him  and  baffled  his  purpose ;  for  this  he  vented 
his  fury  upon  their  country,  and  plundered  all  that  part 
which  lay  nearest  Memphis.1  From  this  revolutionist, 
Thamus,  the  murdered  Phileseus  is  removed  thirteen 
generations ;  and  I  think  it  great  ignorance  in  them 
not  to  know  these  facts,  and  very  unwise  in  them 
not  at  once  acquitting  a  young  man  guilty  only  of 
an  involuntary  crime,  and  may  be  committed  in  self- 
defense  upon  one  whose  ancestor  had  so  deeply 
wronged  the  gymnosophists.”  These  facts  were  com¬ 
municated  to  the  young  man,  when  he  sought  out 
Apollonius  and  inquired  of  him :  “  Who  art  thou,  O 
stranger  ?  ”  “  It  is  not  lawful  for  me,”  said  Apollonius, 
“to  communicate  with  a  man  stained  with  blood.”  But 

1  Apollonius  de  Tyane  (Chassang),  p.  234,  etc. 


252 


APOLLONIUS 


he  desired  the  young  man  to  wait  on  him  after  he  had 
obtained  absolution  and  lodgings  with  the  gymnoso- 
phists.  Four  days  after  this  the  young  man  presented 
himself  to  Apollonius,  who  performed  the  ceremonies 
enjoined  by  Empedocles  and  Pythagoras  for  purifica¬ 
tion,  and  bid  him  go  home  cleansed  from  his  crimes. 
About  noon  the  next  day  they  arrived  at  the  college 
of  the  gymnosophists,  not  far  from  the  banks  of  the 
Nile.  The  place  was  barren  and  inhospitable ;  little 
attention  had  been  paid  to  the  cultivation  of  trees  in 
their  district,  a  fact  which  Apollonius  deprecated,  inas¬ 
much  as  the  Indians  held  the  tree  sacred,  and  all  their 
sages  assembled  in  a  grove  for  public  business.  They 
had  no  general  place  of  meeting  for  public  worship, 
like  the  Indians ; 1  but  they  had  chapels  on  elevated 
places,  like  the  Egyptians.  They  wore  a  dress  like  the 
Athenian ;  in  intelligence  and  wisdom  the  Indians 
excel  them  as  much  as  they  do  the  Egyptians.2  The 
chief  object  of  their  worship  above  all  things  is  the  Nile, 
as  the  god  of  humidity  and  fecundity.  They  also  wor¬ 
ship  the  sun  at  its  rising.  They  live  entirely  in  the 
open  air,  and  have  neither  house  nor  cottage.  They 
have  a  kind  of  caravansary  for  the  accommodation  of 
strangers  passing  through  their  country.3 

The  cool  manner  in  which  the  gymnosophists  re¬ 
ceived  Apollonius  was  a  surprise  to  him,  as  he  had 
anticipated  demonstrations  in  his  favor.  Damis  soon 
discovered  the  cause  of  their  indifference  to  proceed 
from  a  report  circulated  among  them  by  a  special  mes- 

1  Priaulx,  Indian  Travels  of  Apol-  3  Apollonius  de  Tyane,  par  Chas- 

lonius  of  Tyana  (Quaritch,  Lon.)  sang,  pp.  234-249;  Enc.  Brit.,  art. 

2  Philo ,  vol.  iii.  p.  523.  Caravanserai. 


OF  TYANA. 


253 


senger  from  Alexandria  sent  by  Euphrates.  This  mes¬ 
senger  had  arrived  and  departed  in  advance  of  the 
party  of  Apollonius.  The  executor  of  this  artifice 
was  one  Thrasybulus,  a  Naucratite.  On  his  arrival, 
he  pretended  great  literary  affinities  with  their  order, 
his  real  object  being  to  forestall  public  opinion  against 
Apollonius ;  and  he  scrupled  to  nothing  to  accomplish 
his  purpose.  And  although  the  gymnosophists  believed 
that  the  stories  told  by  Thrasybulus  were  probably 
true,  yet  they  did  not  accord  with  the  character  of 
Apollonius  as  previously  reported  to  them,  and  they 
therefore  did  not  decline  intercourse  with  him  when  he 
arrived ;  but  they  were  very  formal  and  reserved,  and 
spoke  lightly  of  the  gymnosophists  of  India,  of  whom 
Apollonius  was  fulsome  in  praise.1  All  these  things 
rendered  him  extremely  uneasy,  until  finally,  the 
above  facts  being  discovered,  a  mutual  understanding 
took  place.  After  this,  he  was  in  daily  communi¬ 
cation  and  discourse  with  them.  Many  of  these  dis¬ 
courses  were  preserved  by  Damis,  and  are  not  without 
much  interest,  but  which  we  have  thought  best  to  omit 
from  this  sketch.2 

On  one  occasion,  in  answer  to  some  questions  pro¬ 
pounded  to  Apollonius  by  a  learned  gymnosophist  con¬ 
cerning  his  philosophy,  his  mode  of  life,  and  his  religion, 
Apollonius  answered :  “  O  wise  Egyptian,  the  choice 
which  Prodicus 3  says  was  made  by  Hercules  in  his 
youth,  has  been  rightly  and  philosophically  explained 

1  Indian  Travels  of  Apollonius  of  lectured  at  Athens,  B.  C.  450.  Among 

Tyana  (Priaulx),  p.  132.  his  pupils  were  Isocrates,  Euripides, 

2  Philo  Judceus ,  vol.  iii.  p.  523  and  probably  Socrates.  He  wrote 

(Bohn  ed.,  1855).  a  work,  called  The  Choice  of  Her- 

3  Prodicus  was  an  atheist.  He  cules,  preserved  by  Xenophon. 


254 


APOLLONIUS 


by  you.  But  I  have  chosen  otherwise.  In  the  doctrine 
of  Pythagoras  I  observed  something  sublime ;  I  per¬ 
ceived  the  ineffable  wisdom  by  which  he  not  only  knew 
what  he  was  but  what  he  had  been.  In  forming  my 
opinion  of  it,  I  considered  the  purity  with  which  he  ap¬ 
proached  the  altars,  his  abstinence  from  animal  food, 
his  wearing  no  garments  made  of  what  had  life,  the 
manner  in  which  he  held  his  tongue,1  and  the  rules  he 
prescribed  for  its  right  government.  In  short,  when  I 
considered  how  he  had  laid  down  the  rest  of  his  philo¬ 
sophical  system,  founded,  as  it  were,  on  oracles  and 
truth  itself,  I  flew  at  once  to  his  doctrines,  without 
choosing  a  philosophy  composed  of  two  systems,  as 
you  have  advised.  I  have  considered  all  systems,  and 
have  been  struck  with  some  beauty  in  all,  and  not  only 
beautiful,  but  divine ;  but  some  seemed  superior  to 
others,  some  dazzled  by  their  brightness.  But  most  of 
them  held  loose  reins  on  appetites  and  passions ;  the 
hands  were  left  at  liberty  to  grasp  at  wealth ;  the  eyes 
to  behold  every  unholy  object ;  and  a  latitude  allowed 
to  love  and  desire.  I  found  but  one  which,  if  true  to 
its  tenets,  promised  complete  exemption  from  all  these 
unruly  affections.  It  stood  out  to  me  in  unspeakable 
beauty ;  it  had  subdued  Pythagoras  himself,  and  had 
been  the  guiding  star  of  Zeno ;  it  stood  apart  from  all 
other  systems,  and  did  not  mingle  in  the  train  of  popu¬ 
lar  philosophies,  and  seemed  to  invite  me  within  its 
embraces  in  these  words :  ‘  O  young  man,  the  path  to 
which  I  would  direct  your  steps  is  full  of  cares  and  self- 

1  For  an  explanation  of  the  prov-  ium  de  iis  qui  corrupti  pecunia  (in 
erb  of  eiu  yXoycrq,  the  bos  in  qua  olim  bovis  signum)  loqui  non 
lingua ,  consult  Erasmus.  Proverb-  auderent  (Berwick),  p.  317. 


OF  TYANA. 


255 


denials.  If  any  man  conform  to  my  rule  of  life,  he  must 
remove  from  his  table  all  animal  food  and  forget  the 
use  of  wine  ;  he  must  not  mingle  the  cup  of  wisdom  set 
in  the  hearts  of  all  men  with  a  love  of  wine  ;  he  is  to 
wear  no  garments  made  from  either  hair  or  wool ;  his 
shoes  must  be  of  the  bark  of  trees ;  and  his  rest  and 
sleep  wherever  and  whenever  he  can  get  them.  I  am 
so  severe  with  my  followers,  that  I  have  bridles  for 
curbing  the  tongue.  Attend  now,  and  I  will  tell  you 
the  rewards  which  await  him  who  makes  me  his  choice. 
He  shall  possess,  without  a  rival,  the  virtues,  justice 
and  temperance ;  he  shall  become  more  a  terror  to 
tyrants  than  their  slave,  and  shall  be  more  acceptable 
to  the  gods,  through  his  humble  offerings,  than  they 
who  shed  the  blood  of  hecatombs  of  bulls ;  he  shall  be 
sympathetic  in  the  sufferings  of  others,  with  a  tran¬ 
scendent  love  for  all  humanity.  When  once  he  is  made 
pure,  I  will  give  him  knowledge  of  hereafter,  and  so  fill 
his  visual  ray  with  light  as  to  render  him  capable  of  dis¬ 
tinguishing  the  merit  of  gods  and  heroes,  and  of  appre¬ 
ciating,  to  their  full  value,  all  shadowy  phantasms 
whenever  they  assume  the  form  of  mortals  or  im¬ 
mortals.’ 

“  This  is  the  philosophy  and  this  is  the  life  I  have 
chosen,  O  learned  Egyptian  !  in  doing  which  I  think 
I  have  neither  deceived  myself  nor  have  been  deceived 
by  others.  I  have  endeavored  to  act  in  all  things  as 
becomes  a  philosopher  of  that  school,  and  have  acquired 
all  that  was  promised  by  it.  I  have  considered  as  a 
philosopher  the  origin  of  this  art,  and  whence  are 
derived  its  principles,  and  it  has  appeared  to  me  to  be 
the  invention  of  men  who  excelled  in  virtuous  actions, 


256 


APOLLONIUS 


and  consequently  in  divine  knowledge,  and  who  have 
searched  deeply  into  the  nature  of  the  soul,  whose 
mortal  and  immutable  essence  is  the  true  source  whence 
it  flows.  I  never  thought  we  were  indebted  to 
the  Athenians  for  the  knowledge  of  the  soul.1  The 


1  The  inornateness  of  all  occi¬ 
dental  notions  on  the  condition  of 
the  human  soul,  from  the  time  of 
Plato  to  our  day,  is  not  so  much  in 
design  as  the  want  of  capacity  in  the 
western  mind,  to  absorb  all  the 
metaphysical  subtlety  and  imagina¬ 
tive  vastness  of  the  oriental  intellect 
whence  this  philosophy  arose.  The 
inane  spirituality  of  the  Hindoo 
heaven  was  presented  in  oriental 
literature  on  a  scale  of  grandeur 
and  intensity  wholly  beyond  the 
comprehension  of  the  feeble  intel¬ 
lects  of  the  early  Christians.  But 
they  took  in  their  fill  of  it.  The 
Buddhist  devotee  loathes  existence 
as  the  sum  of  all  evil.  The  disciple 
of  the  Nazar ene  clings  to  it  as  the 
only  good.  The  divergence  is  enor¬ 
mous.  Nor  could  Christian  sophis¬ 
try  in  its  sublimest  flights  raise  its 
neophytes  to  a  comprehension  of 
that  blessed  state,  the  oriental  Nir- 
wana;  to  them  it  was  an  empty, 
lifeless,  and  godless  paradise  of  im¬ 
mobility,  of  which  nothing  could  be 
affirmed.  This  refined  and  quies¬ 
cent  rest  of  the  human  soul  in  the 
Nirwana  (heaven)  of  Gotama  had 
no  allurements  for  the  Christian. 
To  satisfy  the  grossness  of  his 
nature  and  meet  his  mental  rank, 
heaven  must  be  rapturous,  phe¬ 
nomenal,  and  sensuous.  But  while 


this  western  philosophy  could  not 
mount  to  those  higher  and  more 
refined  states  of  the  philosophy  of 
Valmika,  it  eagerly  and  comprehen¬ 
sively  grasped  the  dogma  of  the 
twenty-eight  evolutionary  hells  of 
the  Vishnu  Puranas,  the  complexity 
of  which  it  evaded  in  its  articles  of 
faith  by  altogether  erecting  them 
into  one  gigantic  hell.  And  there 
is  no  doubt  that  Christianity  has 
proselytized  more  by  presenting 
the  tortures  of  a  material  hell  than 
were  possible  through  the  promised 
rest  of  the  metaphysical  nihilistic 
Nirwana.  It  was  thus  that  terror 
and  torture  were  enshrined  as  fun¬ 
damental  dogmas  of  the  Christian 
creed.  All  the  vigorously  drawn 
and  highly  colored  pictures  of  the 
tortures  of  damned  souls  in  our 
theology  are  but  feeble  utterances 
from  the  original  Hindoo.  But  the 
founders  took  in  all  that  they  had 
genius  to  utilize.  None  but  infidels 
were  damned  to  the  Hindoo  hell, 
and  this  is  also  reflected  in  our 
philosophy  by  making  the  most 
ample  provisions  for  the  accommo¬ 
dation  of  the  unbeliever  —  vastly 
the  preponderating  class  of  offend¬ 
ers. 

The  dogma  of  heaven,  or  state  of 
rewards,  was  a  subsequent  inven¬ 
tion,  and  was  interpolated  in  our 


OF  TYANA. 


25  7 


doctrines  of  Plato  were  taught  us  at  Athens  with  divine 
eloquence,  and  they  were  perverted  and  corrupted  by 
the  admission  of  erroneous  doctrines  and  opinions  con¬ 
trary  to  the  conception  of  the  divine  Plato.  These 
corrupted  doctrines  had  gained  a  foothold  in  my  native 
country  during  my  minority,  and  I  determined  to  seek 
the  truth  from  its  fountain-head,  and  for  such  reasons  I 
was  induced  to  visit  the  Indians.  And  for  like  reasons  I 


have  come  to  you,  believing  them  and  you  men  of  sub¬ 
lime  genius  because  of  the  pure  atmosphere  you  breathe. 
But  I  find  that  you  also,  like  the  Athenians  with  the 
doctrines  of  Plato,  have  perverted  the  dogmas  of  the 
Indian  gymnosophists,  and  worship  your  gods  more  after 
the  ritual  of  the  Egyptians  than  your  own.1  For  myself 
I  will  say  nothing,  but  I  do  not  care  to  hear  the  Indians 
spoken  of  with  contumely.  And  if  you  possess  the 
candor  and  wisdom  of  the  Himeraean  poet,2  and  think 
there  is  any  truth  in  what  I  say,  you  will  without  delay 
reverse  your  judgment  and  change  your  opinions/’3 
During  one  of  the  many  conversations  had  with  the 
gymnosophists,  Apollonius  said,  “You  are  ashamed  of 


theology ;  it  partakes,  however,  of 
the  character  of  the  age  and  the 
race  among  whom  it  first  appeared. 
It  is  a  gross  and  sensuous  paradise, 
with  a  low  order  of  pleasures;  a 
state  that  every  intellectual  man 
and  woman,  with  ennobling  con¬ 
ceptions  of  humanity,  would  rather 
seek  to  escape  than  strive  to  attain. — 
See  Bhagavat  Gita;  Die  Religion 
des  Buddha ,  mid  ihre  Eutstelung 
(Koeppen,  1858)  ;  Mythological , 
Classical ,  and  Philosophical  Dic¬ 
tionary  of  India  (Madras,  1871). 

33 


1  Priaulx,  Indian  Travels  of  Apol¬ 
lonius  of  Tyana  (  Quaritch,  London). 

2  Stesichorus,  a  lyric  poet  of 
Himera,  in  Sicily.  He  lost  his  sight 
for  invectives  against  Helen,  and 
received  it  again  on  recanting  what 
he  had  written.  His  name  at  first 
was  Tisias,  but  was  changed  to 
Stesichorus  in  memory  of  his  being 
the  first  who  taught  the  chorus  to 
dance  to  the  lyre. 

3  Apollonius  de  Tyane,  sa  Vie,  ses 
Voyages,  ses  Prodiges ,  par  A.  Chas- 
sang,  p.  253. 


258 


APOLLONIUS 


having  caused  the  earth’s  displeasure  which  forced  you 
to  migrate  to  this  country.  You  had  rather  pass  for 
any  race  than  Ethiopians,  and  yet  you  are  continually 
exposing  yourselves  to  this  charge.  You  have  laid 
aside  all  the  ornaments,  and  as  far  as  in  your  power  all 
the  customs  peculiar  to  the  Indians.  But  no  man 
grounded  in  the  wisdom  of  the  Hindoos  would  ever 
mistake  your  nationality.  You  have  worshiped  your 
own  gods,  but  it  has  been  after  an  Egyptian  form,  and 
in  speaking  of  the  Indians  you  have  used  unbecoming 
language,  just  as  if  blame  cast  on  them  did  not  recoil 
on  yourselves  as  the  descendants  of  the  same  race.1 
And  that  the  customs  which  began  at  the  time  of  your 
changing  your  dress  are  not  yet  altered ;  even  to  this 
day  you  are  giving  specimens  of  a  reproachful,  sarcastic 
style  of  conversation  in  saying  that  the  Indians  have 
made  no  useful  discovery,  and  that  they  are  entirely 
given  over  to  the  phenomena  of  raising  apparitions  and 
specters  and  certain  delusions  by  which  they  fascinate 
and  defraud  the  eyes  and  ears.  All  such  conversations 


1  Philostratus  says  that  the  gym- 
nosophists  of  Ethiopia,  who  settled 
near  the  sources  of  the  Nile,  de¬ 
scended  from  the  Brahmins  of  India, 
having  been  driven  thence  for  the 
murder  of  their  kings.  This,  Phi¬ 
lostratus  says,  he  learned  from  an 
ancient  Brahmin  named  Iarchus. 

Another  ancient  writer,  Eutathues, 
also  states,  that  the  Ethiopians  came 
from  India.  —  Blavatsky,  vol.  i.  567; 
ii.  p.  437.  Their  customs,  language, 
religion,  and  physiology  seem  to  re¬ 
duce  the  entire  problem  to  the  answer 
of  one  of  two  questions ;  either  the 


Indians  came  from  Egypt  or  the 
gymnosophists  came  from  India, 
and  for  a  thousand  reasons  it  is 
more  probable  that  India  was  the 
homestead  of  both. — Anacalypsis  : 
An  Attempt  to  D?'aw  Aside  the  Veil 
of  the  Saitic  Isis, —  an  Inquiry  into 
the  Origin  of  Language,  etc.,  by 
Godfrey  Higgins,  vol.  i.  p.  44.  This 
important  ethnological  problem  was 
probably  more  nearly  a  demonstra¬ 
ble  truth  in  the  days  of  Apollonius 
than  in  our  day.  And  we  deem  the 
proofs  of  the  Indian  origin  of  the 
Egyptian  sufficient  to-day. 


OF  TYANA. 


259 


are  proofs  of  your  ignorance  or  perversion  of  the 
Indian  philosophy.  It  was  only  a  proof  of  your 
folly  when  you  passed  on  my  wisdom  before  I 
had  opened  my  mouth ;  however,  as  to  myself  I  will 
say  nothing.1  And  now,  in  all  candor  let  me  sub¬ 
mit  to  you :  Do  you  think  that  your  methods  for 
propagating  truth  and  purifying  the  world  can  prove 
otherwise  than  a  failure  ?  True,  it  may  tend  to  the 
purification  of  yourselves  ;  but  why  not  practice  your 
great  virtues  in  the  world  and  surrounded  by  tempta¬ 
tions  ?  Why  not  remain  in  the  midst  of  crowded 
populations  and  help  purify  them  by  your  example  and 
practice  ?  Do  you  not  rob  the  world  of  your  ennobling 
influence  by  taking  yourselves  out  of  it  ?  I  think  your 
system  of  philosophy  in  these  particulars  has  little  to 
recommend  it,  beside  its  selfishness/’ 

Subsequently  to  this  an  Egyptian  gymnosophist, 
named  Nilus,  said  to  Apollonius  :  “  I  have  been  very 
much  impressed  with  what  you  said  in  your  last  dis¬ 
course  concerning  the  Indians  and  Egyptians.  My 
father  traded  on  the  Red  Sea,  having  command  of  a 
ship  which  the  Egyptians  sent  over  from  Berenice  to 
India.2  In  his  voyages  thither  he  conversed  with  many 


1  Cf.  Priaulx,  Indian  Travels 
of  Apollonius  of  Tyana  (Quaritch, 
London). 

2  This  route  lies  up  the  Nile  to 
Coptos,  thence  to  Berenice  (Bel- 
zoni’s  Narrative,  p.  304)  on  the 
Red  Sea  (Arabicus  Sinus),  thence 
to  the  outlet  of  the  Red  Sea,  be¬ 
tween  the  points  of  land,  Berenice 
epi  Dives  on  the  west  and  Oseles 
on  the  east,  where  were  erected  the 


“  Pillars  of  Plercules,”  they  being 
bronze  shafts  upon  which  were  en¬ 
graven  the  great  exploits  of  sea¬ 
faring  men.  Passing  between  these 
columns  they  enter  the  Avalites 
Sinus,  thence  the  Erythroeum  Mare 
or  Atlantic  Sea,  where  dwelt  the 
Atlanteans  ( Geography  of  Herodo- 
tus,  by  Wheeler  [London,  1854],  p. 
19),  on  which  they  sailed  to  India. — 
Cf.  Plato’s  Critias  and  Trmceus. 


26o 


APOLLONIUS 


Indians,  from  whom  he  received  the  same  account  of 
their  wise  men  that  you  have  given.  My  father  told 
me  that  they  were  the  wisest  of  mortals,  and  that  the 
Ethiopians  were  a  colony  from  India.1  In  consequence 


1 1  think  it  is  pretty  generally 
conceded  that  Upper  and  not  Lower 
Egypt  was  first  peopled;  that  its 
first  population  was  a  maritime  peo¬ 
ple,  and  came  from  India,  Ceylon, 
and  the  farther  East.  The  oldest 
monuments  are  found  in  Upper 
Egypt. 

With  no  intent  of  entering  the 
realm  of  ethnology  in  this  essay, 
we  know  that  Christianity  did  not 
originate  in  Judea,  nor  do  we  know 
where  it  first  manifested  itself,  nor 
did  those  who  have  told  us  all  about 
it,  know.  But  this  much  we  do 
know,  that  the  earliest  knowledge 
we  have  of  it  was  among  the  Copts 
of  Egypt  (they  take  their  name  from 
Coptos),  and  that,  as  they  advanced 
in  it,  they  became  more  ignorant 
and  bigoted,  and  it  is  to  the  Copts 
that  we  also  trace  our  earliest  gos¬ 
pels,  more  ancient  than  the  Chris¬ 
tianity  of  the  Syrians,  Maronites,  or 
Armenians;  this  race  dates  its  na¬ 
tionality  far  into  the  prehistoric 
past.  They  were  the  builders  of 
Thebes  and  the  pyramids.  Theo¬ 
logians  interested  in  solving  the  old 
proverb  of  Nazareth  may  smear 
themselves  over  with  war-paint, 
and  sound  the  war-whoop;  but  if 
the  fight  is  to  be  contested  with  in¬ 
tellectual  weapons,  and  upon  his¬ 
torical  territory,  they  may  more 
creditably  leave  the  question  uncon¬ 


tested,  for  they  have  neither  weap¬ 
ons  nor  territory  in  their  cause. 
Ethnology  teaches  us  that  the  Copts 
were  a  race  from  Upper  Egypt  and 
Abyssinia,  and  for  ages  past  their 
trend  has  been  with  the  current  of 
the  Nile,  and  for  the  past  eighteen 
hundred  years  have  become  more 
and  more  degraded  with  every  re¬ 
move  from  their  original  homestead. 
The  great  ethnological  residuum  or 
unsolved  problem  is,  Where  did  the 
Ethiopians,  the  ancestors  of  the 
Copts,  come  from  ?  The  best  in¬ 
formation  we  have  from  modern 
scientific  men  is,  that  they  were  a 
maritime  people,  and  came  from 
India ;  and  this  is  perfectly  consist¬ 
ent  with  Plato,  and  thoroughly  sus¬ 
tained  by  Apollonius.  Without, 
however,  drawing  conclusions  upon 
any  but  the  surest  foundations,  it 
may  be  profitable  for  the  curious  to 
pursue  this  hint,  and  ascertain  if  it 
may  not  in  some  way  account  for 
the  many  similar  rites  and  legends 
of  the  Christian  and  Hindoo  relig¬ 
ion.  The  ancient  Brahmins  taught 
the  doctrine  of  periodical  creation 
and  destruction  of  the  world;  a 
very  complex  doctrine,  but  much 
modified  in  the  Christian  cosmos. 
This,  it  is  well  known,  was  the  doc¬ 
trine  of  the  early  stoics,  and,  ac¬ 
cording  to  Dr.  Pritchard,  they 
obtained  this  doctrine  through  the 


OF  TYANA. 


26l 


of  this  account  of  my  father,  and  my  love  for  adven¬ 
ture  and  knowledge,  I  resigned  my  hereditary  patri¬ 
mony  and  joined  the .  naked  philosophers,  to  learn 
from  them  the  wisdom  they  are  said  to  have  obtained 
from  the  East.  I  found  them  a  wise  people,  but 
not  so  wise  as  my  father  had  represented  the  Indians 
to  be.  And  when  I  asked  why  they  followed  not  the 
philosophy  of  their  great  antitype,  the  Indians,  they 
had  recourse  to  invectives  such  as  you  heard  when  you 
first  came  among  them.  And  now  having  acquired 
all  that  can  be  learned  among  the  gymnosophists,  I 
am  determined  upon  deserting  them  and  visiting  India, 
—  The  Hill  of  the  Sages, —  on  the  first  favorable  oppor¬ 
tunity,  and  learning  from  them  that  wisdom  which  my 
father  so  highly  commended,  and  you  so  eloquently 
discoursed  upon.”  For  the  information  of  this  young 
man,  Apollonius  recounted  to  him  his  entire  adventure 
in  India,1  to  which  he  listened  with  almost  breathless 
interest,  and  when  he  had  finished  exclaimed  :  “  The 
gods,  O  master,  have  sent  you  hither  as  my  guide  and 
assistant,  to  give  me  intellectual  relish  of  their  wisdom 
without  having  to  travel  the  ocean.”  “  But,”  said 
Apollonius,  “have  you  fully  considered  the  conse¬ 
quences  of  a  desertion  from  the  gymnosophists,  and 


medium  of  Egyptian  priests,  whose 
information  was  received  through 
the  channels  of  commerce  and  im¬ 
migration.  Now,  it  is  just  possible, 
were  a  small  modicum  of  that  spirit 
of  investigation,  which  has  for  at 
least  one  thousand  years  endeav¬ 
ored  to  rationally  account  for  the 
whence  and  where  of  Christianity, 


to  devote  its  research  in  this  direc¬ 
tion,  it  might  very  vexatiously  dis¬ 
cover  the  real  object  of  their  search. 
—  See,  also,  The  Symbolical  Lan¬ 
guage  of  Ancient  Art  and  Myth¬ 
ology,  etc.,  by  R.  Payne  Knight, 
p.  109. 

1  Priaulx,  Indian  Travels  of 
Apollonius  of  Tyana. 


2  62 


APOLLONIUS 


the  censure  to  which  you  subject  yourself?”  “  I  have,” 
said  Nilus;  “and  he  who  makes  a  choice  may  commit 
a  fault,  while  he  who  does  not  has  certainly  committed 
one.  Up  to  this  time  I  have  served  among  the  light  troops 
of  the  Egyptian  philosophers ;  from  this  moment  I  am 
going  to  put  on  heavy  armor,  and  adorn  myself  with 
your  shield.  It  certainly  cannot  be  wrong  for  a  man 
to  take  the  right  way,  having  found  it  after  having 
wandered  in  the  wrong.  I  might  remain  with  the 
gymnosophists,  and  with  the  light  which  I  have  this  day 
received,  and  by  my  counsel,  endeavor  to  bring  them 
back  to  the  creed  of  their  fathers.  For  he  who  advises 
another  to  embrace  some  new  doctrine,  avoids  at  least 
the  reproach  of  giving  unsavory  advice  if  he  has  adopted 
that  doctrine  himself.  But  I  shall  not  remain ;  I  have 
made  my  choice.” 

These  and  many  other  conversations  were  held  by 
Apollonius  and  Nilus,  Damis  only  being  present.  At 
a  subsequent  meeting  of  Apollonius,  Nilus,  Thespasian, 
and  Damis,  which  took  place  in  a  grove,  Apollonius 
said  he  would  introduce  a  subject  for  discussion  by 
asking  a  question.  The  gymnosophists  replied,  “Ask 
what  questions  you  please,  for  all  knowledge  proceeds 
from  interrogation.” 

“  Why,”  asked  Apollonius,  “  have  you  given  the 
Egyptian  representations  of  the  gods  to  objects  so  few 
of  which  are  conceived  in  wisdom,  or  in  any  degree 
suitable  to  the  divine  nature  ?  ”  On  hearing  this,  the 
Egyptian  savant,  Thespasian,  with  some  little  warmth, 
replied,  “  Of  what  nature  are  statues  of  the  gods  with 
the  Greeks  ?  ”  “  They  are,”  replied  Apollonius,  “  of 

exquisite  beauty.”  “I  suppose,”  said  Thespasian,  “  you 


OF  TYANA. 


263 


allude  to  the  statues  of  the  Olympian  Jove,  Minerva, 
the  Cnidian  Venus,  and  Argive  Juno.”1  ‘‘They  were 
not  the  only  ones,”  said  Apollonius,  “  to  which  I 
alluded  ;  but  I  say  in  general,  that  the  art  which  shows 
itself  in  the  rest  has  preserved  a  most  becoming  pro¬ 
priety  in  their  formation.  As  to  what  I  have  seen 
among  you,  I  think  you  hold  your  gods  rather  in  a 
ludicrous  than  in  a  serious  and  honored  point  of  view.” 
“  Would  you  have  us  believe,”  said  Thespasian,  “  that, 
in  their  conception,  your  gods  are  of  a  higher  inspira¬ 
tion,  and  that  your  Phidias  and  Praxiteles  went  up  to 
heaven,  whence  they  drew  their  art  first-hand  from  the 
pantheon  of  the  gods  ? 2  Or  was  it  something  else 
which  skilled  them  in  the  arts  ?  ”  “  It  was  imagina- 


1  The  statue  referred  to  is  a  fig¬ 
ure  of  Juno  sitting  on  a  throne, 
with  Minerva  and  the  goddess  of 
youth  standing.  It  is  a  work 
erected  in  the  temple  of  Juno  at 
Mantinea.  A  large  figure  of  Juno 
as  the  goddess  presiding  over  mar¬ 
riage,  made  of  Pentilisian  marble, 
was  in  the  temple  of  Juno  at  Pla- 
tsea.  There  was  a  marble  statue 
of  the  Cnidian  Venus  at  Thespise, 
another  Venus  at  Alexandria,  a  city 
of  Caria  near  Mount  Latinos. 

2  A  list  of  some  of  the  principal 
works  of  Praxiteles  embraces  the 
following :  statues  of  Apollo,  La- 
tona,  and  Diana,  at  Megara ;  a 
statue  of  Bacchus,  put  up  in  Elis ; 
a  statue  of  Mercury  carrying  Bac¬ 
chus  when  an  infant,  in  marble ;  a 
figure  of  Aesculapius,  placed  in  the 
grove  of  Trophonius  at  Lebadea;  a 
figure  of  a  satyr,  made  of  Parian 


marble  and  kept  at  Megara ;  a  fig¬ 
ure  of  Pan  carrying  a  leather  bottle 
and  accompanied  by  the  nymphs 
and  Danae ;  statues  of  the  Twelve 
Deities  at  Megara ;  figure  represent¬ 
ing  the  labors  of  Hercules,  Thebes ; 
a  statue  of  Diana,  citadel  at  Athens ; 
statue  of  Diana  Anticyra,  in  Phocis ; 
statue  of  Ceres,  Athens ;  also  Pros¬ 
erpine  and  Iacchus  ;  marble  statue 
of  Venus  at  Thespise;  statues  of 
Persuasion  and  Consolation,  temple 
of  Venus  at  Megara;  also  of  For¬ 
tune  ;  marble  statue  of  Phryne  at 
Thespise,  and  another  at  Delphi. 
In  addition  to  these,  Strabo  men¬ 
tions  several  in  the  temple  of  Diana 
at  Ephesus.  I  wish  this  note  would 
warrant  us  in  referring  to  the  cele¬ 
brated  works  of  Critias,  Nestocles, 
Polycletus,  Phsedmon,  Scopas,  Smi- 
lis,  Polycharmus,  Xenocrates,  and 
others. 


« 


264 


APOLLONIUS 


tion,”  replied  Apollonius;  “a  much  wiser  mistress  than 
imitation.  To  form  in  his  mind  the  image  of  Jupiter, 
one  should  see  him  with  the  same  enraptured  imagina¬ 
tion  Phidias  did,  sitting  with  the  Hours  and  stars.1 
And  he  who  would  attempt  a  representation  of  Pallas 
should  first  fill  his  mind  with  accurate  and  lofty  ideas 
of  wars,  armies,  and  councils,  and  be  able  to  conceive 
her  transcendental  appearance  at  the  moment  she  left 
the  brain  of  Jupiter,  in  full  and  complete  armor.  If 
you  place  an  image  of  a  hawk,  an  owl,  a  wolf,  a  dog,  or 
a  bull  in  your  temple  to  represent  Mercury,  Minerva, 
or  Apollo,  the  beast  may  be  exalted  by  such  represen¬ 
tation,  but  the  gods  will  certainly  be  debased.  The 
Greeks,  it  is  true,  worship  the  divine  forms  produced 
by  their  inspired  sculptors  under  a  praiseworthy  rivalry. 
No  such  stimulus  to  art  exists  in  Egypt ;  in  all  her 
sacred  subjects  the  law  is  inflexible,  no  innovation  is 
tolerated,  the  same  forms  were  preserved,  from  the  re¬ 
motest  period,  with  a  precision  of  measurement  and 
detail  almost  marvelous.  Religious  zeal,  therefore, 
which,  with  experience,  observation,  and  a  freedom  of 
imagination,  has  made  Grecian  sculpture  the  admira¬ 
tion  and  adoration  of  the  world,  has  done  nothing  for 
Egypt.  They  were  not  allowed  to  copy  nature ;  it  was 
therefore  useless  to  study  it.  Certain  rules,  measure¬ 
ments,  and  models  have  been  established  by  your 
priesthood, —  the  miserable  conceptions  of  an  ignorant 


!The  Egyptian  deities  were  chiefly 
honored  by  lamentations ;  the  Greek 
divinities  by  dances. —  See  De  Dal- 
vione ,  Socrates,  Apuleius,  Herodo¬ 
tus.  No  nation  on  earth  had  a 
richer  collection  of  games  and  fes¬ 


tivals  growing  out  of  its  religious 
system  than  Greece.  The  Greek 
divinity  was  seldom  looked  upon  as 
being  better  than  man. —  Hist.  Eu¬ 
ropean  Morals  (Lecky),  vol.  i.  p. 

344- 


OF  TYANA. 


265 


age,  which  every  artist  was  compelled  to  follow  without 
the  innovation  of  a  hair.”  “  I  think,”  said  Thespasian, 
“  you  slight  our  mode  of  worship  and  methods  in 
divine  art,  before  you  give  a  fair  examination ;  for 
surely  what  we  are  speaking  of  is  wise,  if  anything 
Egyptian  is  so.  And  furthermore,  we  know  our 
sculpture  and  worship  to  be  the  mother  of  the  Grecian 
system.1  True,  you  represent  your  gods  by  the  divine 
form  of  man,  but  even  yet  they  have  not  forgotten 
their  parentage,  for  many  of  them  now,  and  formerly 
all  of  them,  were  adorned  with  the  horns  of  the  Egyp¬ 
tian  bull,  Apis.  Your  Serapis  and  Isis,  Jupiter  Ammon, 
Zeus  Ammon,  Bacchus,  Demeter,  Achelous,  Deme¬ 
trius,  Poliorcetes,  and,  above  all,  the  head  of  Astarte, 
the  most  famous  of  all,  the  Phoenician  queen,  are  rep¬ 
resented  with  horns.  And  more  reprehensible  still  is 
that  system  which  represents  its  greatest  deified  con¬ 
querors,  as  Alexander,  with  the  horns  of  an  Egyptian 
bull.2  And  then  your  great  philosopher  Plato  affirmeth 
that  there  is  but  one  God,  and  that  all  things  were 
created  by  him.  Your  Thales,  who  had  searched  into 


1  Cf  Campollion’s  Pantheon Egyp- 
tien  (Paris,  1825);  History  of  An¬ 
cient  Art  (Reber),  pp.  1  to  70. 

2  The  coins  of  Alexander,  struck 
at  Lemnos,  Smyrna,  Rhodes,  and 
Aspendus,  bear  the  head  of  Alex¬ 
ander  with  horns.  A  medal,  struck 
in  honor  of  Marc  Antony,  and  now 
in  the  British  Museum,  bears  his 
image  with  ram’s  horns.  When 
Pythagoras  traveled  among  the 
Egyptians  he  was  surprised  to  find 
that  their  gods  and  demons  were  for 
the  most  part  identical  with  those 

34 


of  the  Greeks.  The  same  identity 
was  observed  by  Herodotus ;  he 
also  remarked  that  the  Egyptians 
worshiped  human  spirits,  men  and 
women  deified  after  death  for  their 
good  actions  during  life.  And  Dio¬ 
dorus  Siculus,  who  is  better  author¬ 
ity  than  either  of  the  others,  tells  us 
that  beside  the  sun,  moon,  and  seven 
primary  planets,  which  the  Egyp¬ 
tians  call  the  eternal  gods,  they  also 
worshiped  as  gods  such  as  were 
taken  from  the  earth  and  noted  for 
their  good  deeds. 


266 


APOLLONIUS 


such  matters,  said  that  God  was  an  understanding. 
Pythagoras  called  him  a  living  mind,  from  whom  all 
life  emanated.  Cleanthes  defined  him  to  be  air;  An¬ 
axagoras  an  infinite  mind,  which  moved  itself.  Chry- 
sippus  thought  he  was  a  natural  power.  Some  of  your 
philosophers  were  of  the  opinion  that  there  were  no 
gods.  Diagoras  and  Theodorus  affirmed  plainly  that 
there  was  no  god  at  all.  Protagoras  reported  that  he 
had  no  certainty  of  the  gods,  wherefore  you,  Athenians, 
banished  him  out  of  the  empire.  Epicurus  granted 
there  was  a  god,  but  that  he  was  neither  liberal  nor 
bountiful,  and  had  no  regard  for  things  ;  that  God  is  no 
god,  but  only  a  cruel  and  unkind  monster;  while  we 
Egyptians  maintain  the  goodness  of  the  gods,  and 
that  we  are  of  their  direct  lineage ;  that  they  began 
among  us,  or  that  we  began  among  them,  and  that  our 
ancestors  were  gods.  How  superior  the  position  of  the 
Egyptians,  who  look  upon  the  gods  as  stable  and  un¬ 
changeable  either  in  art  or  philosophy,  to  the  fickleness 
of  a  system  which  allows  every  man  to  construct  his 
own,  or  to  worship  Eis  own  conception  of  them.”1 
Apollonius,  smiling  at  this,  said,  “  O  ye  sages,  what 
great  advantage  has  accrued  to  the  Egyptians  and 
Ethiopians  from  the  worship  of  dogs,  goats,  and 
bulls?”  “I  think,”  said  Thespasian,  “there  are  no 


1  Hera  was  worshiped  in  Samos 
and  Thespise  under  the  form  of  a 
plank ;  Athene  of  Lindus  as  a 
smooth,  unwrought  beam;  Pallas 
of  Attica  as  a  rough  stake,  and  the 
Icarian  Artemis  as  a  log.  Zeus 
Meilichios,  at  Sicyon,  had  a  pyra¬ 
midal  form ;  Zeus  Casius  was  a 


rock ;  Apollo  Agyieus  had  the  shape 
of  an  isosceles  triangle,  and  Hermes 
exhibited  himself  as  a  phallus. — 
Herodotus ,  ii.  41.  The  emblem  of 
Isis  is  that  of  a  woman  having  horns, 
as  the  Greeks  make  Io. — Mythology 
and  Fables  of  the  Ancients  (Banier), 
i.  498. 


OF  TYANA. 


267 


people  who  have  been  more  favored  by  the  gods  than 
the  Egyptians.  Has  not  Egypt  wrought  out  a  destiny 
from  barbarism  to  the  highest  civilization  ?  and  without 
the  aid  of  the  gods  no  nation  can  attain  to  any  emi¬ 
nence  in  the  art  of  civilization.’’  1 

“There  was  an  old  Athenian,”  said  Thespasian,  “of 
the  name  of  Socrates  who  was  as  great  a  fool  as  we 
Egyptians.2  He  thought  a  dog,  a  goose,  and  even  a 
platanus  were  gods,  and  he  swore  by  them.” 

“  He  was  no  fool,”  said  Apollonius ;  “  he  did  not 


1  How  natural,  resting  with  an 
unshaken  faith  upon  that  noble 
river,  the  Nile,  and  worshiping  it 
as  a  deity,  tolerating  all  other  re¬ 
ligions,  sending  no  missionaries  or 
apostles  to  convert  their  neighbor¬ 
ing  heathen,  to  believe  that  she  was 
specially  favored  of  the  gods.  The 
barbarians  of  the  exterior  world 
gave  her  no  anxiety,  for  uncon¬ 
sciously  they  were  elevated  by  the 
potency  of  her  culture  and  the  con¬ 
sequent  abrasion  of  carrying  on  a 
commerce  with  her,  making  herself 
in  the  mean  time  not  obnoxious  to 
them;  sending  out  no  evangelists, 
asking  no  help,  resorting  to  no 
fagot  or  stake,  she  rose,  flourished, 
and  fell  alone,  and  left  a  good  repu¬ 
tation.  And  through  all  the  ages  that 
have  elapsed  since  her  decline,  with 
all  her  faults,  the  world  has  never 
produced  a  nation  whose  virtues 
equaled  those  of  the  Egyptians. 
Many  nations  have  been  more  boast¬ 
ful  and  pretentious.  Greece  sent  her 
sons  to  the  banks  of  the  Nile  to 
seek  culture,  and  they  succeeded  in 


transplanting  one  century  of  Egyp¬ 
tian  philosophy  in  Greece. —  The  Age 
of  the  Stoics.  No  purer  potentates 
have  ever  lived  on  earth  than  those 
who  ruled  in  Rome  from  Nerva  to 
Commodus.  But  a  new  and  emas¬ 
culated  philosophy  had  been  in¬ 
stalled  with  fire  and  sword  under 
Constantine,  and  the  world  became 
dim  with  the  dark  ages  ;  knowledge 
was  treasured  by  the  few ;  its  pur¬ 
suit,  however,  was  never  entirely 
suspended,  but  it  struggled,  suf¬ 
fered  on  until,  in  the  thirteenth 
century,  after  nearly  one  thousand 
years  of  the  most  disgraceful  ter¬ 
rorism,  the  little  spark  was  again 
kindled  into  a  flame,  and  now,  in 
the  nineteenth  century,  commands 
the  conduct  of  the  world,  and  de¬ 
mands  that  the  overt  acts  of  super¬ 
stition  and  ignorance  shall  cease ; 
strips  the  pretentious  philosophy  of 
Nazareth  naked,  and  leaves  it  ex¬ 
posed  to  the  ridicule  of  mankind. — 
Lecture. 

2  R.  Payne  Knight’s  Ancient  Art, 
etc.,  p.  4. 


268 


APOLLONIUS 


swear  by  them  as  gods,1  but  he  swore  by  them  to  avoid 
swearing  by  the  gods.”2 

“At  all  events,”  retorted  Thespasian,  “the  Egyp- 
tians  loved  their  gods ;  they  were  pure.  The  profanity, 
grossness,  and  indecency  of  the  Grecian  Olympus  were 
unknown  in  Egypt.  The  debaucheries  of  Silenus  and 
of  Pan,  the  obscenities  of  Priapus,  the  frauds  of  Mer¬ 
cury,  the  unchastity  of  Venus,  find  no  counterpart  in 
Egypt.”3 

Notwithstanding  all  the  rhetoric  of  Apollonius  and 
Thespasian,  there  was  no  debatable  divergence  between 
their  respective  deities  ;  they  were  soulless  and  unim¬ 
passioned  things ,  and  were  utterly  impotent  to  inspire 
reverent  emotion.  All  emotion,  however,  is  purely  a 
human  passion,  and  every  spark  of  the  falsely  so-called 
divine  enthusiasm  is  rooted  wholly  in  some  human  con¬ 
ception.  You  may  visit  all  the  shrines,  all  the  temples, 
and  all  the  galleries  on  earth  for  all  times,  and  the 
picture,  the  statue  that  enthralls  whole  generations 
of  men,  and  which  will  survive  the  ravages  of  time,  is 
some  monument  of  human  and  not  divine  nobility, 
quickened  into  speaking,  living,  breathing  marble,  or 
rehearsed  upon  the  immortal  canvas.  And  priest  and 
hierophant  may  write  till  doomsday  to  prove  that  there 
is  beauty  or  ecstasy  in  the  god-element  of  a  statue  or  a 
painting,  and  die  without  having  moved  a  muscle  in  the 


1  Oath  explained ,  Bryant’s  An¬ 
ti  ent  Mythology ,  vol.  ii.  p.  34. 

2  Stanley’s  Life  of  Socrates. 

“  Shallow  swears  by  cock  and 
pye.  ” — Shakespeare. 

3  The  Serpent  Myths  of  Ancient 
Egypt,  being  a  Comparative  History 


of  these  Myths  Compiled  from  the 
Ritual  of  the  Dead,  Egyptian  In¬ 
scriptions,  Papyri  and  Monuments 
in  the  British  and  Continental  Mu¬ 
seums,  by  W.  R.  Cooper,  Hon.  Sec. 
Soc.  Bib.  Archaeology  (London, 
1873)  P-  4,  etc. 


OF  TYANA. 


269 


direction  of  their  effort.  It  is  art  only  so  far  as  it  is 
implicated  with  humanity.  A  god  or  the  gods  are  to  be 
adored  only  in  proportion  as  their  attributes  approxi¬ 
mate  those  of  their  creator — man;  of  those  Raphael 
painted,  Homer  sang,  and  Boccaccio  told  immortal 
tales.1 

The  Egyptian  gymnosophists  had  many  customs  in 
common  with  the  essenes,  therapeutse,  jesuits,  and 
Christian  orders  of  later  times.  They  all  begged ; 
were  all  monkish ;  had  a  novitiate  period,  initiation ; 
abstained  from  wine,  meat ;  practiced  the  healing  art ; 
held  goods  in  common ;  took  oaths  of  chastity  and 
poverty ;  educated  the  children  of  strangers,  and  never 
left  their  home  in  the  desert  except  to  beg.  The  gym¬ 
nosophists  of  India,  a  name  given  them  by  the  Greeks, 
their  name  being  Vanaprastha,  which  signifies  hermit,2 
were  the  most  learned  men  of  antiquity.3  It  is  true 
their  system  was  tinctured  with  magic,  but  not  to  the 
extent  that  modern  astronomy  was  with  astrology,  or 
chemistry  with  alchemy.  The  Egyptian  hierophants, 
of  whom  Apollonius  treats,  notwithstanding  the  prac¬ 
tice  of  a  stern  and  pure  morality,  could  not  be  com¬ 
pared  with  the  ascetical  gymnosophist  of  India  either 


1  Lecture.  The  Greek  concep¬ 
tion  of  the  gods  was  that  they  were 
persons  who  wore  a  form  precisely 
like  that  of  man,  no  more  beautiful 
and  no  more  majestic.  It  was  the 
highest  excellence  they  tried  to 
express  in  their  statuary  of  their 
gods,  and  this  is  the  explanation  of 
Greek  beauty. — Histoire  veritable 
des  temps  fabuleux  qui  contient  V his¬ 
toire  d^Egypte,  par  M.  Guerin  du 


Rocher  (Paris,  3  vols.),  vol.  ii. 
p.  161. 

2  It  is  the  third  stage  of  Brahmini- 
cal  life;  his  clothing  must  be  of 
Kusa  grass,  must  bathe  three  times 
a  day,  must  live  from  alms,  must 
anoint  himself  with  only  such  un¬ 
guents  as  the  vegetable  world 
affords. 

3  Priaulx,  Indian  Travels  of  Apol¬ 
lonius  of  Tyana  (Quaritch,  Lon.) 


2JO 


APOLLONIUS 


in  holiness  of  life  or  miraculous  powers  developed  in 
them.  By  those  who  knew  them  they  were  even  held 
in  greater  reverence  than  the  magicians  of  Chaldea.1 
Denying  themselves  the  simplest  comforts  of  life,  they 
dwelt  in  woods  and  led  lives  of  the  most  secluded  her¬ 
mits,  while  the  Egyptian  brothers  at  least  congregated 
together.  And,  notwithstanding  the  reproach  which 
history  has  cast  upon  all  those  who  practiced  magic,  it 
is  certain  that  they  possessed  the  greatest  medical  skill 
then  known.  And  many  are  the  volumes  preserved  in 
Hindoo  convents  in  which  are  recorded  proofs  of  their 
learning.  They  had  fathomed  nature  to  its  depths, 
while  physiology  and  psychology  were  to  them  open 
books.  To  them  the  secret  power  of  every  plant  and 
mineral  was  elementary.2  The  care  which  they  took 
in  educating  youth,  in  familiarizing  it  with  generous 
and  virtuous  sentiments,  did  them  peculiar  honor,  and 
their  maxims  and  discourses  as  recorded  by  historians 
prove  that  they  were  expert  in  matters  of  philosophy, 
metaphysics,  astronomy,  morality,  and  religion.3 

Among  the  many  discourses  of  Apollonius  to  his 
followers,  some  were  on  the  relation  of  the  serpent  to 
the  healing  art.4  This  subject  he  had  discoursed  upon 
in  Spain  and  Crete,  where  the  serpent  was  still  regarded 
with  veneration.5  The  subtlety  of  many  human  dis¬ 
tempers  was  such  that  they  were  compared  to  a  ser¬ 
pent,  the  most  subtle  of  all  living  creatures,  and 

1  Philosophy  of  Magic  (Salverte),  Modern  Science  and  Theology ,  by 

vol.  i.  p.  134.  H.  P.  Blavatsky  (2  vols.),  vol.  i. 

2  Priaulx,  Travels  of  Apollonius  of  p.  90. 

Tyana  (Quaritch,  London).  4  Symbolical  Law  of  Ancient  Art 

3  Isis  Unveiled :  a  Master  Key  and  Mythology  (Knight),  p.  175. 
to  the  Mysteries  of  Ancient  and  5  Knight’s  Priapus ,  pp.  64,  68. 


OF  TYANA. 


27  I 


vEsculapius  was  the  only  philosopher  up  to  his  time 
who  had  completely  subdued  the  most  obdurate  dis¬ 
eases  ;  hence  he  is  always  represented  as  going  about, 
accompanied  by  a  serpent,  the  symbol  of  cunning  and 
insidiousness.  It  is  said  that  Cadmus  never  died,  but 
was  changed  to  a  serpent.1  Cecrops  was  of  dual  nature, 
human  and  serpent.2 3  The  original  god  of  Delphi  was 
a  serpent.  The  cave  of  Trophonius  was  guarded  by 
serpents.  All  these  Apollonius  pronounced  great 
superstitions. 

Nor  have  the  Egyptians  escaped  this  great  scandal. 
The  hooded  snake  was  sacred  to  them.  The  great  god 
Thoth  was  but  an  impersonation  of  the  serpent.  Ser¬ 
pent  worship  prevailed  all  over  Egypt;  it  was  the 
symbol  of  fruitfulness  and  life-bestowing  power  of 
nature.8  “And  do  you  not  worship  and  embalm  the 
serpent  and  erect  for  him  magnificent  tombs.”  (Apol¬ 
lonius  to  Thespasian.) 4 * * * 


1  The  Symbolical  Language  of 
Ancient  Art  and  Myth.  (Knight), 

p.  150. 

2  Same ,  p.  159. 

3  See  Deane’s  great  work :  The 
Worship  of  the  Serpent  Traced 
Throughout  the  World,  A  ttesting  the 
Temptation  and  Fall  of  Man  by  the 
Instrwnentality  of  a  Serpent  Tempter, 
by  Rev.  Bathurst  Deane,  M.  A., 
F.  R.  S.  (second  edition,  London, 
Remington,  1833) ;  also,  Worship 
of  Priapus ,  by  R.  Payne  Knight, 
Esq.,  p.  137. 

4  Thespasian  must  have  been  ig¬ 

norant  of  the  extent  of  the  great  su¬ 

perstition,  or  he  never  would  have 

permitted  this  remark  of  Apollonius 


to  have  passed  unanswered,  and 
more  especially  as  the  evidence  is 
overwhelming  that  the  worship  of 
the  serpent  prevailed  in  its  most  ob¬ 
noxious  form  in  Greece.  It  was 
also  worshiped  in  Tyre ;  and  Hea, 
the  third  person  in  the  Babylonian 
trinity,  was  a  serpent  deity. — 
Bathurst  Deane,  Worship  of  the  Ser¬ 
pent,  p.  419. 

To  avoid  as  much  as  possible 
the  labyrinths  of  mythic  worship, 
we  find  that  in  Epidaurus  there 
was  a  temple  of  ^Esculapius  and  a 
grove  connected  with  it,  in  which 
serpents  were  kept  and  provided 
for  in  the  time  of  Pausanias. — Cf 
Knight’s  Worship  of  the  Serpent, 


2/2 


APOLLONIUS 


In  the  ascent  of  the  Nile,  which  was  the  most  im¬ 
portant,  in  an  archaeological  and  theological  point  of 
view,  and  fullest  of  incident,  of  all  of  the  travels  of  Apol¬ 
lonius,  save  only  his  journey  into  India,  he  visited  all 


pp.  39, 63,  etc.  A  huge  serpent  was 
kept  in  the  temple  of  this  god  at 
Alexandria.  The  people  of  Argos, 
in  Greece,  held  serpents  in  such 
veneration,  that  nobody  was  allowed 
to  harm  them.  They  were  deified 
and  enrolled  among  the  gods. — 
Sanchoniathon's  Fragments  :  Essay 
Toward  a  Natural  History  of  Ser¬ 
pents  (in  two  parts,  to  which  is  added 
a  third  part),  by  Chas.  Owen,  D.  D. 
(London,  1742);  Philo  Biblius,  On 
Serpent  Apotheosis  ;  Observations  on 
the  Serpent  Myths  of  Ancient 
Egypt ,  by  W.  R.  Cooper. 

At  Athens  there  was  a  temple 
dedicated  exclusively  to  the  serpent 
god  Erecthonios,  whose  site  the 
Erectheum  now  occupies. — Hyginus 
Fab.,  140. 

In  exploring  the  antiquities  cf 
Rome,  we  are  astonished  at  the 
abundant  monuments  attesting  the 
prevalence  of  this  idolatry. — Des 
Divinites  Generatrices  chez  les  An- 
ciens  et  les  Modernes  (Paris,  Du- 
laure) ;  cf.  The  Royal  Museum  at 
Naples,  being  some  Account  of  the 
Erotic  Paintings,  Bro7izes,  and 
Statues  contained  in  that  Famous 
“  Cabinet  Secret ,”  by  Colonel  Fanin 
(with  sixty  full-page  illustrations, 
London,  1871,  privately  printed). 

There  was  the  tree  worship,  but 
apparently  no  serpent  worship,  in 
Germany.  The  Samogitse,  the  Poles, 


had  both.  Both  occur  throughout 
Scandinavia.  The  evidence  of 
sculptured  stones  admit  of  it  in  Scot¬ 
land  and  Ireland.  But  Africa  was 
the  hot-bed  of  this  superstition, 
where  it  was  rife,  with  as  much 
vigor  as  it  had  been  in  Epidaurus. — 
History  of  Egypt,  from  the  Earliest 
Times  till  the  Conquest  of  the  Arabs, 
A.  D.  640,  by  Samuel  Sharpe 
(Moxon,  London,  2  vols.,  1859), 
vol.  i.  p.  17,  etc. ;  cf.  Ancient  Sym¬ 
bol  Worship :  Influence  of  the 
Phallic  Idea  in  the  Religion  of  An¬ 
tiquity,  by  Hodder  M.  Westropp 
and  C.  Stainland  Wake,  etc.  (Lon¬ 
don,  1874).  And  among  the  Da- 
homas  it  exists  to-day  associated 
with  human  sacrifice.  Human  sac¬ 
rifice  also  prevailed  in  America 
(Peru  and  Mexico)  in  the  sacra¬ 
ments  of  this  religion,  and  in  India 
human  beings  were  immolated  in 
its  observance. 

Let  us  go  further  afield.  On  the 
west  coast  of  Africa  is  the  kingdom 
of  Whidah,  where  the  serpent  was 
till  recently  worshiped  by  two  dif¬ 
ferent  people,  or  tribes;  and,  al¬ 
though  violent  antagonisms  existed 
as  to  the  qualities  of  their  respective 
deities  or  their  mode  of  worshiping 
them,  they  each  agreed  in  this :  that 
a  human  sacrifice  was  the  most  ac¬ 
ceptable  offering  to  their  serpent 
deity.  These  people  also  held  that 


OF  TYANA. 


273 


the  historic  places  on  both  sides,  as  well  as  some  of  the 
mountainous  country  on  the  right  of,  and  more  distant 
from,  the  Nile,  making  observations  on  things  most 
remarkable.  He  ascended  as  far  as  the  great  cataract, 


the  most  effectual  of  all  sacraments 
to  appease  their  angered  deity  was 
a  self-immolated  victim  or  a  vica¬ 
rious  sacrifice.  This  same  notion  also 
prevailed  among  the  Chinese,  Cey¬ 
lonese,  Hindoos,  Polynesians,  and 
Egyptians. — Cf.  Prehistoric  Tradi¬ 
tions  and  Customs  in  Connection 
\ with  Sun  and  Serpent  Worship ,  by 
John  S.  Phene,  LL.  D.,  F.  S.  A. 
(London,  1875);  Jacob  Bryant’s 
New  System ,  or  an  Analysis  of  A n- 
tient  Mythology ,  wherein  a7i  Attempt 
is  made  to  divest  Tradition  of  Fable 
and  to  reduce  Truth  to  its  Original 
Purity  (3  vols.  4to,  London),  vol.  i. 
p.  473 ;  see  Ferguson’s  work,  Tree 
and  Serpent  Worship,  or  Illustra¬ 
tions  of  Mythology  and  Art  in  India 
in  the  First  and  Fourth  Centuries 
A.  D.,  from  the  Sculptures  of  the 
Buddhist  Topes  of  Sanchi  and  Am- 
ravati ,  by  James  Ferguson,  F.  R.  S., 
M.  R.  A.  S.  (1868). 

Ferguson  says  that  serpent  wor¬ 
ship  and  human  sacrifice  were  co¬ 
existent  in  India,  but  were  not  a 
part  of  the  same  sacrament  as  they 
were  in  Pelasgic  times  in  Greece,  in 
Rome,  Carthage,  Phoenicia,  and 
Egypt. —  Bryant’s  Analysis,  vol.  i. 
p.  440.  In  all  of  these  localities  the 
serpent,  as  the  Agatho-Daemon,  pro¬ 
vider  of  health,  fortune,  and  revealer 
of  knowledge,  points  directly  to 
human  sacrifice  as  the  most  precious 

35 


propitiatory  offering. — Wilkinson’s 
Ancient  Egyptians,  vol.  v.  p.  261; 
also,  Symbolical  Language  of  An¬ 
cient  Art  and  Mythology  (R.  Payne 
Knight,  Esq.),  p.  12.  This  practice 
was  carried  to  a  fearful  extent  with 
the  Druids. —  Deane’s  Worship  of 
the  Serpent,  p.  450. 

The  trinity  of  the  Dahomas  is 
identical  with  that  of  the  ancient 
Athenians  of  three  thousand  years 
ago,  serpent,  tree,  and  ocean,  Erec- 
thonios,  Olive,  and  Poseidon.  Solo¬ 
mon  reprobates  the  practice  so 
prevalent  in  his  day  in  the  following 
language :  “  They  worshiped  ser¬ 
pents  void  of  reason.” — Cf  God¬ 
frey  Higgins’s  Anacalypsis,  p.  158; 
Prehistoric  Traditions  and  Customs 
in  Connection  with  Sun  and  Serpent 
Worship,  by  John  S.  Phene,  LL.D., 
F.  S.  A.,  F.  G.  S.  (London,  1875). 

I  must,  however,  close  this  note ; 
the  subject  is  absolutely  endless.  In 
Mexico  they  had  Quetzalcoatl,  the 
great  feathered  serpent  of  Anahuac, 
who  taught  the  Aztecs  laws  and  re¬ 
ligion,  as  the  serpent  Cecrops  taught 
the  Greeks.  The  great  pyramid 
Cholula,  in  Mexico,  was  dedicated 
to  him.  The  same  character  in 
Yucatan  was  called  Kukulcan. 
Huitzlipoctli  and  Tezcatlipoca  were 
gods  associated  with  serpent  wor¬ 
ship  and  human  sacrifice  in  Amer¬ 
ica;  and,  besides  all  the  above  (see 


274 


APOLLONIUS 


and  returned  to  Alexandria,  after  an  absence  of  eight 
years  from  the  crowning  of  Vespasian  (a.  D.  70).  He 
then  made  an  uneventful  journey  along  the  sea-coast 
of  Egypt,  as  far  west  as  the  province  of  Pentapolis, 


Deane’s  Serpent  Worship,  p.  no, 
etc.),  it  was  represented  by  Votan 
in  Guatemala,  Pazuma  in  Paraguay, 
Manco  Copac  in  Peru,  Amalivaca 
among  the  Tamaracs,  Hiawatha  with 
the  Dakotahs,  Ndenger  with  the 
Feejeeans,  Buddah  in  India  (Naga 
worship),  Fohi  in  China,  Zoroaster 
in  Persia,  Osiris,  Isis,  and  Serapis 
in  Egypt,  Hermes  and  Hssculapius 
in  Greece,  Juno  and  Minerva  in 
Rome  (Juno  is  represented  holding 
a  serpent  in  her  right  hand,  and 
Minerva  was  sometimes  attended 
by  a  serpent),  Odin  in  Scandinavia, 
and  Hu  among  the  Bretons. —  Cf. 
Vestiges  of  the  Spirit-History  of  Man, 
by  S.  F.  Dunlap,  c.  iii.;  also,  Ser¬ 
pent  and  Siva  Worship  and  Mythol¬ 
ogy  in  Central  America ,  Africa,  and 
Asia,  and  the  Origin  of  Serpent 
Worship  (two  Treatises,  edited  by 
Alexander  Wilder) ;  also,  The  Ser¬ 
pent  Symbol  and  the  Worship  of  the 
Reciprocal  Principles  of  Nature  in 
A?nerica,  by  E.  G.  Squier,  A.  M. 
(New  York,  1841). 

From  what  has  been  said,  it  would 
seem  that  the  most  universal  of  all 
religions  was  the  absurd  serpent 
worship  and  its  consequent,  the 
reciprocal,  principle  in  nature. — 
Knight’s  Priapus,  p.  105. 

It  is  the  only  religion  known  to 
have  been  universal,  and  it  existed 
until  the  very  establishment  of  Chris¬ 


tianity,  and  from  which  Christianity 
cannot  claim  complete  exemption. — 
Knight’s  Priapus,  p.  107. 

Manes,  a  celebrated  Christian 
heretic  of  the  third  century,  declared 
the  mysteries  into  which  he  had 
been  initiated  as  a  Christian  taught 
that  Christ  was  an  incarnation  of 
the  serpent;  and  the  essenes  and 
the  gnostics  of  the  first  century 
taught  that  the  ruler  of  the  world 
was  of  Draconic  origin. —  Fales’s 
Pagan  Idolatry,  vol.  i.  p.  45 1 ;  also, 
Bryant’s  Annals,  ii.  p.  91 ;  Deane’s 
Serpent  Worship,  p.  160;  Gnostics , 
and  Their  Remains,  etc.  (King), 
pp.  22-171;  History  of  the  Cross: 
The  Pagan  Origin,  etc.,  of  the  Image , 
by  Henry  D.  Ward,  M.  A.,  p.  14, 
et  seq. 

The  description  and  history  of  a 
great  Christian  church  structure 
may  not  be  inappropriate  here  as 
showing  the  innovation  of  this  ab¬ 
surd  superstition  upon  our  day  and 
theology  (see  Serpent  Symbol  in 
America,  by  E.  G.  Squier).  And  a 
careful  analysis  may  develop  more 
of  the  ZEsculapian  superstition  basic 
to  our  theology  than  as  superficial 
believers  we  are  prepared  to  admit. 
What  is  said  of  this  great  Christian 
structure  may  in  some  degree  be 
said  of  nearly  every  similar  struct¬ 
ure  in  existence. —  Godfrey  Hig¬ 
gins,  p.  158.  “The  chancel  and 


OF  TYANA. 


275 

and  returned  to  Alexandria  during  the  last  sickness  of 
Vespasian. 

From  Alexandria  Apollonius  traveled  into  the  East, 
the  country  of  the  Idurneans,  Phoenicians,  Syrians 


communion  table,”  said  he,  “  were 
in  the  extreme  end  of  the  edifice,  for 
the  purpose,  as  Vitruvius  has  said, 
that  the  act  of  devotion  should  be 
performed  facing  the  rising  sun, — 
creator, —  whose  symbol  was  the 
universal  serpent,  from  pagan  Peru 
to  Christian  Rome.  The  first  thing 
on  entering  was  the  serpent, —  it 
trailed  and  coiled  everywhere 
\_Ancient  Symbol  Worship;  Influ¬ 
ence  of  the  Phallic  Idea  in  the  Relig¬ 
ions  of  Antiquity,  etc.,  by  Plodder 
M.  Westropp  and  C.  Stainland 
Wake  (New  York,  1874)];  it  was 
the  principal  decoration  of  the  great 
chandelier  that  hung  from  the  ceil¬ 
ing  ;  it  served  as  a  bracket  against 
the  pillar  to  sustain  the  lamps ;  it 
coiled  in  symbolic  folds  around  the 
pedestal  of  the  symbolic  octagonal 
font  which  held  the  symbolic  water 
of  eternal  youth,  elixir  of  life;  it 
was  painted  twining  around  the 
cross,  or  lying  torpid  at  the  foot  of 
it  [ Ancient  Pagan  and  Modern 
Symbolism  Exposed  and  Explained, 
by  Thomas  Inman,  M.  D.  (1869)]; 
the  triune  convoluted  columns  sup¬ 
porting  the  Gothic  gallery  were  con¬ 
structed  in  the  form  of  it.” — The 
Gnostics  and  Their  Remains,  An¬ 
cient  and  Medieval,  by  W.  C.  King, 
M.  A.  (1864),  p.  227.  All  this  in 
a  Christian  church.  And  now, 
whence  came  it  there,  and  how? 


From  what  damp  grotto  temples 
and  dim  ruins  of  antiquity  had  it 
crept  forth  to  the  world’s  gaze  ? 
— History  of  the  Cross ;  the  Pagan 
Origin  and  Idolatrous  Adoption  and 
Worship  of  the  Image,  by  H.  Dana 
Ward  (1872),  p.  230.  How  many 
sloughings  of  its  skin  had  it  under¬ 
gone  during  the  thousands  of  years 
occupied  in  crawling  into  America, 
Polynesia,  Eastern  Asia,  India, 
Persia,  Greece,  Egypt,  and  Rome  ? 
How  has  it  survived  its  wonderful 
experiences  of  idolatry,  alternately 
savage  and  refined  ?  The  fearful 
worship  of  barbarity  ;  the  cabalistic 
homage  of  the  Orientals ;  bruised 
by  the  seed  of  the  woman;  lifted 
up  as  a  healing  saviour  by  Moses ; 
enduring  the  curses  and  blessings 
of  the  nations  (Baldwin’s  Ancient 
America,  p.  130) ;  at  one  time  the 
symbol  of  darkness,  at  another  the 
symbol  of  light ;  now  adored  as  a 
god,  benevolent,  then  despised  as  a 
demon,  malevolent ;  here  associated 
with  death,  there  with  immortality  ; 
now  symbolizing  prodigal  nature 
overflowing  with  profuse  life,  then 
malevolently  destroying  every  germ. 

Whether  these  are  answered,  or 
remain  unanswered,  the  old  reptile 
of  immutable  duration  still  lives, 
and  is  yet  doing  symbolic  service  as 
faithfully  in  a  Christian  church  as 
he  did  in  the  pagan  temples  de- 


2  y6 


APOLLONIUS 


(Antioch),  Silicians  (Tarsus),  and  afterward  into  Ionia, 
closely  observing  the  habits,  customs,  and  religion  of 
the  people Damis,  in  the  mean  time,  recording  every¬ 
thing  worthy  of  preservation. 

On  the  death  of  Vespasian1  Titus,  then  being  in 
Judea,  having  reduced  Jerusalem,  set  out  for  Rome 


scribed  by  Apollonius. —  Cf.  Magnce 
Deum  Matris  Idcece  et  A  ttidis  Initia 
Ex  vetustis  monumentis  nuper  Tor- 
naci  Nerviorum  erutis  ( Auctore  Lau- 
rentio  Pignorio  Canonico  Tarvisino, 
Amstelodami,  1669);  cf.  The  Lotus 
of  the  Ancients ,  by  M.  C.  Cook, 
M.  D. ;  Monumental  Christianity , 
or  the  Art  and  Symbolism  of  the 
Primitive  Church  as  Witnesses  and 
Teachers  of  Our  Catholic  Faith  and 
Practice ,  by  John  Lundy  (1876); 
The  Veil  of  Isis,  or  Mysteries  of  the 
Druids,  by  Winwood  Reade  (Lon¬ 
don,  1861);  The.  Mythology  and 
Rites  of  the  British  Druids,  Ascer¬ 
tained  by  National  Documents,  and 
Compared  with  the  General  Tradi¬ 
tions  and  Customs  of  Heathenism, 
by  Edward  Davis  (1809). 

Apollonius  affirms  that  the  serpent 
worshipers  came  from  the  East, 
that  they  were  first  navigators  of 
the  sea  and  children  of  the  sun, 
and  in  their  progress  first  settled  in 
Cyprus,  Crete,  Rhodes,  Samos, 
Lesbos,  Thrace,  Euboea,  and  At¬ 
tica. — A  New  System,  or  an  Analy¬ 
sis  of  Antient  Mythology,  etc.,  by 
Jacob  Bryant  (London,  1774,  3 
vols. ),  vol.  ii.  p.  165;  The  Sym¬ 
bolic  Language  of  Ancient  Art  and 
Mythology ,  by  R.  Payne  Knight 


(1876),  p.  142;  Dulaure,  Histoire 
des  dijferents  Cultes  ;  des  Cultes  qui 
ont  precede  et  amene  V I dolatrie  ou 
V adoration  des  figures  humaines, 
etc.  (Paris,  2  vols.,  1825). 

On  a  coin  representing  the  apoth¬ 
eosis  of  Cleopatra  is  a  serpent  upon 
the  regal  diadem,  which  subse¬ 
quently  gave  rise  to  the  popular 
story  of  her  death. 

From  the  testimony  of  coins  and 
medals  exclusively,  we  can  establish 
serpent  worship  in  Phoenicia  from 
the  winged  disk  which  is  repre¬ 
sented  on  these  coins.  Hercula¬ 
neum  and  Syracuse  were  famous  for 
it.  On  the  ancient  medals  of  Naples 
it  is  again  repeated.  On  a  very  an¬ 
cient  Phoenician  medal  the  disk  and 
wings  are  of  a  somewhat  different 
form;  they  resemble  the  Jewish 
cherubim.  Much  curiosity  has  been 
elicited  from  this  remarkable  piece. 
Prof.  Swinton  read  a  paper  upon  it, 
which  was  published  in  the  Philo¬ 
sophical  Transactions  (i860).  It 
is  now  in  R.  Payne  Knight’s  col¬ 
lection. 

1  Vespasian,  who  had  passively 
submitted  to  the  absurd  prepara¬ 
tion  of  his  apotheosis,  observed, 
when  he  felt  himself  ebbing  away  : 
“  I  think  I  am  becoming  a  god.” 


OF  TYANA. 


277 


to  fill  the  place  of  his  father  (a.  D.  79). 1  During 
the  pilgrimages  of  Apollonius  great  transformation 
had  taken  place  at  the  capital.  Rome  had  been  de¬ 
stroyed  in  a  popular  tumult  and  rebuilt.  Vespasian  had 
dedicated  a  temple  to  Peace,  and  commenced  the 
Flavian  amphitheater,  Coliseum.  Helvidius  Priscus,  the 
stoic,  having  offended  Vespasian,  had  been  put  to 
death.  All  the  philosophers,  except  Musonius  Rufus, 
had  been  driven  out  of  Rome.  Demetrius  had  been 
expelled,  Sabinus  Caecina  and  Marcellus  had  been  in¬ 
humanly  butchered.2 

On  his  way  to  Rome  Titus  was  declared  emperor, 
and  invested  with  imperial  dignity,  being  the  first 
prince  who  had  succeeded  by  hereditary  right.  Desir¬ 
ing  a  conference  with  Apollonius,  Titus  requested  that 
he  should  meet  him  at  Argos.3  On  their  meeting  Titus 
embraced  him,  and  said  :  “  My  father  before  he  died 
gave  me  instructions  concerning  you,  and  all  he 
wished  you  to  know ;  he  considered  you  his  benefactor. 
I  am  now  only  thirty  years  of  age,  and  have  attained 
the  same  honors  my  father  did  at  sixty.  I  am  called 
upon  to  govern,  who  am  yet  unconscious  that  I  have 
learned  to  obey.  What  advice,  O  Tyanean,  have  you 
to  give  concerning  my  conduct  in  governing  an 

1  In  answer  to  a  letter  from  Apol-  3  Apollonius  de  Tyaneif. hassang), 

lonius,  Titus  replied:  “  In  my  own  p.  274.  This  meeting  probably  did 
name,  and  in  the  name  of  my  coun-  not  take  place  at  Argos  but  at  Argus, 
try,  I  give  you  thanks,  and  will  be  a  fortress  of  Cappadocia,  near  Nova 
mindful  of  those  things  to  which  in  Cilicia,  as  this  was  the  route  taken 
you  so  nobly  called  my  attention.”  by  Titus  on  his  way  to  Rome,  and 
—  Philostratus,  Concerning  the  Life  Apollonius  appears  to  have  been  in 
of  Apollonius  Tyaneus.  this  part  of  the  country,  and  not  in 

2  Suetonius,  Vespasian.  Greece,  at  that  time. 


278 


APOLLONIUS 


empire?”  “None,”  answered  Apollonius;  “you  have 
abundant  example  before  you.  There  is  an  old  saying 
of  Archytas,1  in  a  treatise  composed  by  him  on  the 
subject  of  education :  ‘  Let  the  virtues  of  a  father  be 
an  example  for  imitation  to  his  sons,  and  his  frailties  a 
barrier  for  their  evasion.’  During  the  life  of  your 
father  you  have  had  to  guard  against  enemies.  Now 
that  you  are  master  of  yourself,  I  advise  you  to  guard 
with  prudence  and  circumspection  against  your  most 
intimate  friends  ;  for,  of  all  men,  I  think  it  is  your  duty 
to  be  on  your  guard.  And  that  you  may  be  fore¬ 
warned  of  approaching  danger,  I  recommend  to  you, 
as  a  companion  and  counselor,  the  philosopher  Deme¬ 
trius,  the  cynic.”2 

On  hearing  the  word  “cynic”  Titus  was  troubled; 
but  Apollonius  replied  :  “  Homer  thought  Telemachus 
wanted  two  dogs  to  attend  him  as  companions  in  the 
councils  of  the  Ithacans,  on  account  of  his  youth.  But 
I  will  give  you  the  cynic  Demetrius,  who  will  bark  for 
you  against  yourself  if  in  anything  you  offend,  and 
thn  he  will  always  do  in  wisdom,  and  never  without 
reason.”  “  Give  me,  then,”  said  Titus,  “  this  com¬ 
panion,  with  permission  to  bite  me,  and  at  all  times 
criticise  wisely  and  fearlessly  all  my  public  and  private 
acts,  and  ever  ready  to  warn  me  of  danger;  not  as  an 
informer,  nor  as  a  flatterer.”3 

1  The  son  of  Hestiseus  of  Taren-  times  chosen  by  his  fellow-citizens 
turn;  he  was  a  follower  of  Py-  Governor  of  Tarentum.  He  per- 
thagoras,,  an  able  astronomer  and  ished  by  shipwreck  (394  B.  c.) 
geometrician.  He  redeemed  his  2  Demetrius  had  been  banished 
master  Plato  from  the  hands  of  the  from  Italy  by  Vespasian, 
tyrant  Dionysius.  He  was  seven  3  Diss.  de  Tito  Imp.  (J.  H.  Jung). 


OF  TYANA. 


279 


Apollonius  then  wrote  to  Demetrius  the  following 
letter : 

“Apollonius  the  Philosopher  to  the  Cynic  Demetrius. 

“  Health  —  I  give  you  to  the  Emperor  Titus,  in  order 
that  you  may  instruct  him  in  all  royal  virtues.  Justify 
what  I  have  said  of  you  to  him,  and  be  everything  to 
him;  but  everything  without  anger.  Farewell.”1 


Titus  ruled  in  Rome  until  his  murder  by  his  brother 
Domitian  (a.  D.  81).  The  great  fire  in  Rome  hap¬ 
pened  in  the  second  year  of  the  reign  of  Titus.  It 
consumed  the  temples  of  Serapis  and  Isis,  and  of  Nep¬ 
tune,  the  baths  of  Agrippa  and  Septa,  the  great  theater 
of  Balbus  and  Pompey,  the  library  of  Augustus,  and 
the  temple  of  Jupiter. 

It  was  probably  fortunate  for  the  memory  of  Titus 
that  he  had  so  brief  a  reign.  He  died  just  soon  enough 
to  retain  the  merited  appellation  of  the  “  Delight  of 
Mankind.”2  Apollonius  accredits  him  with  being  a  good 
man,  and  as  exemplary  a  ruler  as  his  surroundings 
would  permit.  The  festivities  instituted  by  him  on  the 
completion  of  the  Coliseum  were  as  ridiculous  and 
absurd  as  they  were  expensive ;  five  thousand  wild 
beasts  were  let  into  the  arena  and  killed  by  gladiators  ; 3 
this  was  but  one  of  the  brutal  extravagances  of  that 


1  Apollonius  de  Tyane ,  sa  Vie, 
etc.  (Chassang),  p.  276. 

2  I  believe  that  Philostratus  is  not 

the  only  author  who  claims  that  Titus 
was  poisoned  by  Domitian.  He 
was  poisoned  by  eating  lepus  ma- 
rinus,  a  fish  from  which  issues  a 


deadly  poison,  administered  under 
the  direction  of  Domitian,  who  also 
murdered  Clemens,  the  consul, 
though  his  own  cousin,  and  mar¬ 
ried  to  a  woman  who  was  also  a 
relative. — Suetonius. 

3  Vespasien  et  Tite  ( Rolland,  1830). 


280 


APOLLONIUS 


great  festival,  out  of  which  Titus  reaped  nothing  but 
disgrace.1  It  was  Titus’s  dying  regret  that  he  had  not 
made  provisions  to  exclude  his  unworthy  brother  Do- 
mitian  from  the  throne.2 

At  this  time  (a.  D.  70),  Apollonius  being  at  Antioch, 
the  governor  of  Syria  was  stirring  up  seditions  and 
sowing  dissensions  among  the  citizens,  by  means  of 
which  the  peace  of  the  city  was  greatly  disturbed  and 
divided  into  factions ;  and,  to  augment  the  already 
unsettled  state  of  affairs,  the  city  and  country  round 
about  were  this  year  visited  by  a  violent  shock  of  an 
earthquake,  which  terrified  the  inhabitants,  and  many 
of  them  fled  for  safety  out  of  the  city.  Apollonius 
declared  it  was  the  manifestation  of  a  god  for  the  res¬ 
toration  of  peace.  These  shocks  w'ere  felt  in  all  the 
towns  situate  on  the  left  side  of  the  Hellespont,  which 
created  great  alarm  among  the  people.  And  certain 
Egyptians  and  Chaldeans,  taking  advantage  of  the 
alarm,  went  up  and  down  through  them,  collecting 
what  money  they  could  under  a  pretense  of  offering  to 
Neptune  and  Tellus  a  sacrifice  which  would  cost  ten 


1  There  is  every  evidence  that 
Titus  labored  to  restore  the  ancient 
confidence  in  the  empire,  and  the 
dignity  of  his  predecessors  ;  he 
even  recoined  their  money  to  pre¬ 
serve  their  memory.  These  coins 
were  called  restituli ,  and  are  much 
prized  by  collectors.  His  subjuga¬ 
tion  of  Judea  was  typed  in  nearly 
all  of  the  coins  minted  by  him,  and 
were  inscribed,  imp.  t.  caes.  VESP. 
AVG.  P.M.  TR.  P.P.P.  CO.  VIII. 
Translated  Imperator,  Titus,  Caesar 


Vespasian  Augustus ;  High  Pontiff, 
Father  of  his  country,  Consul  for 
the  eighth  time. — Hisioire  des  Em- 
pereurs  ro7nains  depuis  Jules  Ce'sar 
jusqida  Postumus ,  avec  les  me'dailles 
d'argent ,  etc.  (J.  B.  Haulten,  Paris, 
1646),  art.  Titus. 

Many  of  the  coins  of  Titus  were 
struck  during  the  life-time  of  his 
father ;  Ti.  on  his  coins  stands  for 
Tiberius;  T.  stands  for  Titus  always. 

2  Eutropius’s  Abridgment  of  Ro¬ 
man  History,  b.  vii.  120. 


I 


OF  TYANA. 


281 


talents.  The  authorities  of  the  towns  and  individuals, 
whilst  under  the  impression  of  terror,  contributed  what 
they  could  from  their  public  and  private  funds  ;  these 
cheats  having  declared  that  no  sacrifice  could  be  offered 
till  the  money  was  lodged  in  the  hands  of  their  bankers. 
Apollonius,  learning  of  this  new  tribulation  of  the  Hel- 
lespontines,  hastened  through  their  towns  and  exposed 
the  villainies  of  these  wandering  impostors,  who  were 
making  gain  of  the  misfortunes  of  the  people.  Then, 
inquiring  into  the  cause  of  the  anger  of  these  gods,  he 
offered  the  proper  expiatory  sacrifice,  and  by  this 
means  averted  the  danger  which  hung  over  them  at  a 
small  expense,  and  the  earth  had  some  rest. 

From  Antioch  Apollonius  traveled  by  land  into  Issus, 
where  Alexander  achieved  his  great  victory  over  Darius, 
and  thence  to  Tarsus,  where  he  had  been  put  at  school 
when  a  youth.  Tarsus  is  said  to  have  been  the  birthplace 
of  St.  Paul ;  also  of  the  stoics,  Antipater,  Chrysippus, 
Archedamus,  and  Nestor;  and  of  the  grammarians,  Ar- 
temidorus  and  Diodorus ;  and  of  the  botanist,  Dios- 
corides.  It  was  a  great  center  of  learning  and  science. 

Of  old,  the  people  of  Tarsus  bore  no  kindness  to 
Apollonius,1  because  of  his  persistent  reproaches  for 
their  manifold  conceits  and  ostentations.  These  chid- 
ings  were  not  adapted  to  their  sensitive  natures.  Now, 
however,  at  the  time  of  this  visit  in  his  old  age,  they 
had  become  to  love  and  respect  him  as  much  as  if  he 
had  been  the  founder  of  their  city,  having  learned  that 
his  early  reproaches  were  for  their  good,  and,  more¬ 
over,  because  his  fame  had  reached  them  from  all  parts 
of  the  world. 

1  Apollonius  de  Tyane ,  sa  Vie ,  etc.  (Chassang),  p.  264. 

36 


282 


APOLLONIUS 


When  Domitian  ascended  the  throne  and  began  to 
show  signs  of  the  same  morbid  vanity  and  cruelty 
which  had  characterized  Nero,1  Apollonius  at  once 
commenced  to  travel  up  and  down  the  empire,  sowing 
everywhere  the  seeds  of  discontent  and  rebellion 
against  the  crowned  monster.2  Here  again  we  find 
Apollonius  trying  his  hand  at  politics,  a  science  in 
which  most  philosophers  had  proved  themselves  impru¬ 
dent  and  unskillful.  Had  he  and  the  brother  philoso¬ 
phers  of  his  day  confined  themselves  to  their  legitimate 
calling  of  teaching  and  lecturing,  and  left  politics  alone, 
these  emperors,  although  monsters  of  inhumanity, 
would  probably  never  have  disturbed  them.  But 
many  thought  it  the  duty  of  the  philosophers  to  in¬ 
veigh  against  the  political  corruptions  of  the  age, 
against  the  reigning  power,  and  to  stir  up  the  multi¬ 
tude  and  introduce  reformatory  measures.  Irritated 
by  the  boldness  and  encouragement  which  the  opposi¬ 
tion  to  his  tyranny  found  among  the  adherents  of 
stoicism  was  undoubtedly  the  cause  of  Nero’s  hostility 
to  philosophy,  and  which  also  drove  Vespasian  to  ban¬ 
ish  the  stoics  from  Rome.  They,  however,  were  per¬ 
mitted  to  return  under  Domitian,  when  they  were 
again  exiled  from  Rome  for  a  similar  offense ;  a  few, 
probably,  were  executed.  It  has  been  said,  and  no 
doubt  with  a  great  deal  of  truth,  that  it  was  dangerous 
to  possess  talent  and  employ  it  to  any  nobler  purpose 
than  that  of  the  most  obsequious  and  degrading  flat¬ 
tery  of  royalty  during  the  reigns  of  the  dark  and 
suspicious  Tiberius,  the  insane  Caligula,  the  simple 

1  Eutropius’s  Abridgment  of  Roman  History ,  b.  vii.  123. 

2  Lenain  de  Tillemont ,  p.  26,  etc. 


OF  TYANA.  283 

Claudius,  and  the  sanguinary  Nero,  who  were  the  mere 
tools  of  rascally  freedmen  and  women. 

And  yet,  while  these  emperors  were  besottedly 
selfish  and  cruel,  they  no  doubt  desired  to  make  their 
reigns  peaceable  and  popular,  and  to  this  end  they 
believed  that  they  must  rid  the  empire  of  all  opposi¬ 
tion  by  exile  or  execution  rather  than  by  conciliation. 
They  sought  to  secure  peace  to  the  country  by  visit¬ 
ing  vengeance  rather  than  clemency  and  magnanimity 
upon  their  enemies,  and  it  is  quite  true  that  magna¬ 
nimity  had  proved  but  indifferently  successful.  For 
even  the  philosophers  made  provoking  display  of  their 
superior  virtues,  and  treated  royalty  with  contempt, 
save  in  time  of  imminent  peril.  “  I  know,”  says  Phil- 
ostratus,  “  whoever  pleases  may  consider  all  that 
Apollonius  did  against  Nero  was  a  matter  of  mere 
ostentation,  inasmuch  as  he  did  not  raise  the  standard 
of  revolt  and  march  out  in  battle  array  against  him, 
but  managed  to  keep  himself  out  of  harm’s  way; 
while  at  the  same  time  it  is  well  known  that  he  boldly 
and  defiantly  gave  comfort  and  encouragement  to 
Vindex  in  the  Spanish  insurrection,  and  in  the  re¬ 
proaches  he  poured  out  against  Tigellinus  wonderfully 
weakened  his  power.  I  know  also  that  his  attack 
upon  Nero,  let  what  may  be  said  of  it,  required  great 
courage.  Although  Nero  was  weak  and  frail  of  mental 
constitution,  and  led  publicly  only  the  life  of  a  player  on 
the  harp  or  lyre,  yet  he  was  revengeful  and  possessed 
arbitrary  power,  and  his  jurisdiction  was  without  limit.”1 

But  this  was  not  all  true  of  Domitian.  He  was 
a  man  of  robust  mental  and  physical  constitution, 
l  Cf.  Suetonii  Tranquilli>  c.  vii.  p.  159. 


284 


APOLLONIUS 


of  a  morose  and  jealous  temper,  an  enemy  to  all  the 
pleasures  which  tend  to  soften  man’s  rugged  nature, 
a  monster  whose  luxury  of  delight  was  derived  from 
the  misfortunes  of  his  fellow-creatures  and  whatever 
gave  them  pain,1  who  said  that  the  distrust  of  the  peo¬ 
ple  toward  tyrants,  and  tyrants  toward  the  people,  was 
the  phylactery  or  charm  that  supported  power,  and 
maintained  that  it  was  during  the  night  an  emperor 
should  cease  from  all  work  except  that  of  death  and 
slaughter.  Hence  it  came  to  pass  that  the  senate  was 
mutilated  of  its  best  members,  and  philosophy  so 
panic-stricken  that  many  of  its  professors  fled  in  dis¬ 
guise  to  the  farthest  parts  of  Gaul,  others  to  the  deserts 
of  Lybia  and  Scythia,  and  some  there  were  who  em¬ 
braced  the  doctrines  most  suitable  to  their  personal 
safety  and  the  fashionable  vices  of  the  age.2 

Whenever  Apollonius  was  reproached  by  his  friends 
for  the  unwise  course  he  was  pursuing  during  this 
imperial  terrorism,  he  replied,  “  My  only  answer  to 
Domitian  is  the  language  of  Tiresias  in  the  CEdipus 
of  Sophocles,  ‘  I  am  Apollo’s  subject,  and  not  thine.’  ” 
He  always  considered  wisdom  his  sovereign  mistress, 
and  defended  liberty  even  under  Domitian.  He  enter¬ 
tained  no  fears  for  his  own  life,  feeling  that  he  had 
nearly  run  his  course,  but  he  was  deeply  affected  with 
what  caused  the  misfortunes  of  others.  And  although 
many  were  going  into  involuntary  exile,  Apollonius 


1  Tacitus  says :  “  It  was  our 

wretched  lot  to  behold  the  tyrant 
and  to  be  seen  by  him,  while  he 
kept  a  register  of  our  sighs  and 
groans.  Cum  suspiria  nostra  sub¬ 
scriber enturP 

2  When  Domitian  was  emperor, 


the  philosophers  were,  by  a  decree 
of  the  senate,  driven  out  of  the  city 
and  banished  from  Italy.  At  such 
time  Epictetus,  the  stoic,  went  from 
Rome  to  Nicopolis  on  account  of 
this  decree. — Aulus  Gellius,  Nodes 
Atticce  (Beloe,  1795). 


OF  TYANA. 


285 


determined  to  remain  and  take  up  arms  for  the  good 
of  Rome  against  Domitian,  as  he  had  done  against  Nero, 
although  well  knowing  that  Domitian  would  condemn 
him  to  destruction.  But,  like  Zeus,  the  inventor  of 
logic,  who,  when  taken  in  the  very  act  of  planning  the 
destruction  of  Nearchus,  and  put  to  the  rack,  confessed 
against  the  tyrant’s  most  intimate  friends  as  accom¬ 
plices,  who  were  put  to  death  and  he  thereby  disarmed. 
Plato  declares  that  he  entered  into  the  design  of  restor¬ 
ing  liberty  to  the  Syracusans  by  acting  as  an  accom¬ 
plice  with  Dion,  who  was  at  the  head  of  it,  while  he 
was  also  in  favor  at  court. 

Phyton,  when  forced  to  quit  Rhegium,  fled  to 
Dionysius,  the  tyrant  of  Sicily,  by  whom  he  was 
admitted  to  a  greater  share  of  confidence  than  an  exile 
ought,  by  which  he  became  acquainted  with  the  tyrant’s 
secrets ;  and  having  learned  that  he  designed  making 
himself  master  of  Rhegium,  he  gave  information  of  it 
to  the  citizens  by  letters  and  was  discovered.  Diony¬ 
sius  ordered  him  to  be  fastened  to  one  of  his  own 
,  machines,  which  he  had  directed  to  be  advanced  to  the 
walls,  believing  that  the  Rhegians  would  not  attack  it 
with  offensive  weapons  out  of  regard  to  Phyton ;  but 
he  cried  out,  “  Spare  me  not,  for  I  am  the  signal  of 
your  liberty.” 1  And  so  had  Apollonius  determined, 
let  what  might  befall  himself,  to  cripple  the  resources 
of  the  tyrant  for  evil  by  every  act  in  his  power,  so  long 
as  liberty  to  act  was  left  him.  Plutarch  had  been 
banished  from  Rome.2  His  crime  was  applause  of 
the  frugality  of  Vespasian,  the  leniency  of  Titus,  and 

1  Philostraius  de  Vita  Apollonii  Tyanei  Scriptor ,  Luculentus  a  Phillippo 
Beroaldo  Castigatus  (1502),  p.  191. 

2  Treatise  on  Exile ,  Plutarch. 


286 


APOLLONIUS 


deploring  the  vices,  follies,  and  crimes  of  their  successor 
and  reformer,  Domitian.  No  one  can  read  Plutarch 
and  not  discover  his  sorrowing  over  the  degradation 
of  his  time ;  while  he  appears  to  the  casual  observer  as 
tacitly  drifting  with  the  corrupt  current.1  Dion  Chrys¬ 
ostom  had  also  retired  into  exile.2  Martial,  on  the 
other  hand,  had  sung  the  praises  of  Domitian,  and  ex¬ 
alted  him  to  the  skies  for  destroying  the  palace  of  Nero, 
throwing  open  the  gardens  to  the  public,  and  erecting 
an  amphitheater  on  the  site.  He  says :  “The  portico 
of  Claudia  covers  with  its  shades  the  remains  of  that 
palace  which  is  now  no  more.  Rome  is  restored  to 
herself,  and  under  your  auspices,  Caesar,  what  were 
the  enjoyments  of  the  people  ?  ”  In  another  passage 
of  the  De  Spectaculis  he  expatiates  on  the  splendor 
of  the  new  amphitheater,  declaring  that  “  neither 
the  pyramids  nor  the  palaces  of  Babylon,  nor  the 
temple  of  Diana,  nor  the  mausoleum,  could  compare 
with  it.” 

Domitian  had  put  to  death  three  vestal  virgins,  who, 
it  was  charged,  had  violated  their  oath  of  chastity. 
He  put  to  death  Sabinus,  one  of  his  relatives,  and  mar¬ 
ried  Julia,  his  widow  and  his  own  niece,  she  being  one 
of  his  brother  Titus’s  daughters.  On  account  of  this 
marriage,  the  people  of  Ephesus  offered  a  public  sacri¬ 
fice.  Apollonius  was  present,  and  was  heard  to  ex¬ 
claim,  “  O  night  of  the  Danaids,  how  singular  hast  thou 
been  !  ” 3 

1  Suetonius,  Lives  of  Eminent  daughters  of  Danaus,  who  put  to 

Rhetoricians ,  p.  524.  death  their  fifty  husbands,  their 

2  Apollonius  de  Tyane ,  sa  Vie ,  cousins, —  one  only  excepted,  Hyp- 

etc.  (Chassang),  p.  216.  ermnestra,  who  saved  her  husband 

3  The  Danaids  were  the  fifty  Lynceus. 


OF  TYANA. 


287 


During  the  reign  of  Titus,  Apollonius  had  corre¬ 
sponded  with  Nerva,  with  Salvidrenus  Orfitus,  and  with 
Lucius  Minucius  Rufus  (consul  with  Domitian,  A.  D. 
88)  on  subjects  of  philosophy  and  morality;  the  two 
latter  he  had  attached  to  the  interest  of  Nerva  on  ac¬ 
count  of  their  good  character,  and  alienated  them  from 
Domitian  on  account  of  his  tyranny,  and  encouraged 
them  to  stand  forth  in  defense  of  liberty.  But  he  now 
deemed  it  unsafe  to  carry  on  any  epistolary  correspond¬ 
ence  whatever,  as  it  was  a  fact  that  many  of  the  most 
powerful  citizens  were  betrayed  by  their  slaves,  their 
friends,  and  their  wives ;  in  short,  there  was  not  a 
house  to  be  found  into  which  it  was  safe  to  intrust  a 
secret. 

Apollonius  was  fully  apprised  of  this  and  for  his 
companions  chose  only  such  as  he  thought  most  to  be 
depended  upon  for  prudence.  In  a  short  time,  however, 
he  was  informed  that  Orfitus  and  Rufus  had  been  ban¬ 
ished  to  the  islands  and  Nerva  ordered  not  to  leave 
Tarentum.1 

On  this  information  Apollonius  began  to  suspect 
that  an  early  demand  would  be  made  for  his  attendance 
at  court,  and  he  determined  not  to  have  it  to  regret 
that  he  had  wasted  his  time  in  the  idle  dream  that  he 
might  pass  unnoticed,  or  that  he  might  secure  imperial 
clemency.  He  therefore  at  once  repaired  to  Smyrna, 
on  the  Melis,  and  commenced  a  series  of  discourses  on 


1  If  Nerva  was  banished,  as  is 
pretty  well  confirmed  by  history, 
he  must  have  returned  the  same  or 
the  following  year,  for  Dion  Cassius 
says  he  was  in  Rome  when  Domi¬ 
tian  was  murdered.  Nay,  that 


writer  makes  no  mention  of  the 
banishment  of  Nerva,  which  causes 
us  to  suspect  that  Philostratus  was 
right  and  the  other  historians 
wrong  concerning  the  banishment 
of  Nerva. 


288 


APOLLONIUS 


“  Fate  and  Necessity,”  having  special  reference  to  the 
present  state  of  affairs  at  Rome.  Near  the  grove  where 
he  held  forth  stood  a  brazen  statue  of  Domitian,  and  on 
one  occasion,  when  he  had  the  eyes  of  the  spectators 
turned  in  that  direction,  said :  “  Thou  fool,  how  little 
understandest  thou  the  decrees  of  Fate  and  Neces¬ 
sity  !  ”  These  words  were  carried  to  Domitian  by  the 
informer  Euphrates,  who  had  been  secretly  sent  to 
entrap  Apollonius. 

Domitian,  although  an  execrable  emperor,  was  not  a 
man  destitute  of  all  taste  and  culture,  as  Nero,  nor  so 
despicable  a  monster  as  Caligula.  He  maintained  the 
finest  botanical  garden  in  the  world,  and  endeavored  to 
reestablish  the  great  Roman  empire.  He  indeed 
dreaded  and  banished  the  philosophers ;  so  had  his 
father,  and  more  than  one  of  his  imperial  predeces¬ 
sors.  Their  banishment,  perhaps,  at  this  crisis,  was  a 
state  necessity,  because  they  harbored  dreams  of 
liberty,  and  were  often  engaged  in  conspiracies  against 
the  Caesars. 

Domitian  built  a  temple  at  Rome  to  Isis,  and  another 
to  Serapis,  and  fostered  the  Egyptian  worship.  And 
with  such  eagerness  did  the  Romans  accept  these  new 
deities,  and  in  such  demand  did  the  pictures  of  the 
virgin  mother,  goddess  Isis,  with  her  infant  son,  Horus 
Saviour,  on  her  lap,  become  (according  to  Juvenal), 
that  all  the  Roman  painters  lived  upon  painting  the 
group  —  Madonna  and  Child.  Her  temple  in  the 
Campus  Martius  (now  a  Christian  chapel)  was  sup¬ 
plied  with  holy  water  from  the  Nile  to  purify  the  build¬ 
ing  and  her  votaries,  and  a  regular  college  of  priests 


OF  TYANA. 


289 


were  maintained.1  Apollonius  had  been  secretly  advo¬ 
cating  the  cause  of  Nerva,  knowing  that  he  was  to 
succeed  Domitian ;  and  Domitian,  hearing  of  this,  had 
determined  to  put  them  both  to  death.  Whilst  he  was 
considering  this,  and  writing  to  the  pro-consul  of  Asia 
to  have  Apollonius  apprehended  and  brought  to  Rome, 
the  Tyanean  was  making  arrangements  to  appear  volun¬ 
tarily,  being  apprised  of  it  all  as  usual  by  means  of  his 
daemon.2  He  had  already  told  his  friends  that  he  was 
going  to  take  a  very  singular  journey.  Not  knowing  to 
what  he  referred,  some  of  them  called  to  mind  the  story 
of  the  ancient  Abaris,  and  thought  he  was  to  perform 
a  similar  journey.3 

However,  without  communicating  his  intention  to 
even  Damis,  he  took  passage  on  a  ship  bound  from 
Smyrna  to  Achaia.  Their  ship  touched  at  Chio,  a 
flourishing  city  of  the  island  of  Chios,4  second  in  com- 


1  Juvenalis  Sat.,  xii.  28;  Ibid. 
vi.  427;  Ibid.  xii.  364;  Isis  Un¬ 
veiled,  vol.  ii.  p.  10;  Ibid.  vol.  ii. 
p.  50 ;  Ibid.  vol.  ii.  p.  95  ;  Symbolic 
Language  of  Ancient  Art  and  My¬ 
thology  (Knight),  p.  147 ;  cf.  Ser¬ 
pent  Myths  of  Ancient  Egypt ;  also, 
History  of  the  Cross  (Ward);  Sun 
and  Serpent  Worship  (Phene). 

2  Thales,  Pythagoras,  Plato,  and 

the  stoics  considered  the  daemons  to 
be  physical  beings ;  that  the  heroes 
are  souls  separated  from  the  bodies  ; 

some  are  good,  some  are  bad,  and 
the  bad  those  whose  souls  are 
worthless. —  Plutarch,  Sentiments 
which  Delighted  Philosophers,  i.  8. 
“  The  great  mind  of  Zeus  who  loveth 


men  disposeth  for  thee,  the  Dem¬ 
on.” —  Pindar  Pyth.,\.  164.  “Men 
are  good  and  wise  as  the  Demon 
orders.” —  Olympia,  xi.  41.  Cf. 
Plutarch,  Discourse  Concerning  the 
Demon  of  Socrates,  ii.  4. 

3  Iamblicus  tells  us  that  Apollo 
invested  the  Hyperborean  Abaris 
with  the  power  of  flying  through 
the  air  on  a  magical  arrow,  whither¬ 
soever  he  pleased.  Bayle  laughs  at 
the  idea  of  Abaris  making  his  entry 
into  Athens  riding  on  a  broom¬ 
stick.  '9c  tov  Viax&c  Tispcecpspe. 

4  Chios  was  the  native  place  of 
Theocritus,  Theopompus,  and  Glau- 
kos,  who  invented  the  method  of 
soldering  iron  (ai$Y]poo  ttoWqate;). 


37 


290 


APOLLONIUS 


mercial  importance  to  Smyrna.  Here  they  took  in 
cargo  for  Corinth.  Remaining  but  a  few  hours,  they 
again  made  sail,  and  stood  westward  and  southward  over 
the  JEge an  sea,  and  in  five  days  landed  at  Cenchrese  on 
the  Saronic  gulf,  a  sea-port  of  Corinth.  The  Isthmian 
games  in  honor  of  Poseidon,1  which  were  celebrated 
here  every  second  year,  were  now  being  solemnized. 
It  was  near  Cenchreae  that  the  famous  temple  and 
statue  to  this  god  were  located ;  also  a  temple  and 
statue  to  Venus.  Apollonius  did  not  remain  to  see 
the  festival  completed,  but  proceeded  at  once,  overland, 
to  Corinth  (six  English  miles).  Nearly  the  whole  of 
this  distance  is  a  suburb  of  that  city.  They  passed  the 
monument  of  Diogenes,  the  cynic  of  Sinope,  a  temple 
of  Venus  Melanis,  the  tomb  of  Lais,  to  whom  her  fel¬ 
low-citizens  paid  almost  divine  honors,  and  the  tomb 
of  the  children  of  Medea,  Pheres  and  Mermerus. 
They  spent  the  night  in  the  temple  of  Apollo,  near 
the  market-place,  which  is  surrounded  by  the  temples 
of  the  Ephesian  Artemis,  of  Fortune,  and  of  Jupiter 
Capitolinus,  and  statues  standing  in  the  open  air.  One 
is  of  Pallas,  another  of  Diana,  made  in  bronze.  In  the 
Forum  there  is  also  a  bronze  statue  of  Minerva,  at  the 
foot  of  which  are  statues  of  the  Muses ;  and  just  out- 


1  Barrier’s  Mythology  and  Fables , 
vol.  iv.  p.  436.  The  Isthmian 
games  were  an  ancient  ceremony  of 
the  worship  of  Melkarth,  of  Phoe¬ 
nician  origin ;  it  was  afterward 
modified  into  the  Ionic  worship  of 
Poseidon.  The  festival  at  this  time 
was  under  the  management  of  the 
Corinthians,  and  was  something  after 


the  method  of  the  Olympian  and 
Pythian  games,  but  was  celebrated 
every  two  years.  The  Athenians 
were  closely  connected  with  the  festi¬ 
val,  and  had  the  privilege  of  the 
foremost  seats,  while  the  Eleans 
were  entirely  excluded.  The  games 
were  gymnastic,  equestrian,  musical, 
etc. ;  the  prize,  a  crown  of  parsley. 


OF  TYANA. 


291 


side  of  the  Forum  is  a  temple  dedicated  to  Octavia, 
sister  of  Augustus.  Corinth  is  noted  for  the  number 
of  its  statues  and  beauty  of  its  public  baths.  But  it 
had  suffered  more  spoliation  at  the  hands  of  the 
Romans  than  any  other  Grecian  city.  About  two 
hundred  years  before  the  time  of  Apollonius  she  had 
been  sacked  and  absolutely  depopulated.  Julius  and 
Augustus  Caesar  had  raised  it  to  its  present  glory. 

The  next  day,  at  noon,  having  made  his  vows,  as 
Apollonius  always  did  at  midday  to  the  sun  in  the  tem¬ 
ple  of  Apollo,  he  made  preparations  to  depart,  not 
desiring  to  stay  in  Corinth,  which,  he  says,  was  a  nest 
of  harlots.  The  great  cause  of  the  looseness  of  morals  at 
Corinth,  Apollonius  says,  was  the  forcible  introduction 
and  detention  of  female  slaves  into  the  temples  of 
Aphrodite,  making  them  worse  than  common  brothels.1 

He  proceeded  the  same  day  to  Lechaeum,  the  harbor 
or  sea-port  of  Corinth,  on  the  Corinthiacus  Sinus.  The 
road  taken  by  Apollonius  and  his  followers  began  at  the 
market-place,  and  led  north  to  Lechaeum ;  it  first  passed 
the  Propylaea,  surmounted  by  Phaeton  and  Helois ; 
next  was  the  grotto  of  Pierene.  At  Lechaeum,  Apol¬ 
lonius  embraced  the  opportunity  of  inspecting  the  great 
canal  of  Nero,2  work  upon  which  had  now,  however, 
been  entirely  suspended  ;  it  had  proceeded  only  about 
three  stadia  (600  yards)  from  the  harbor. 

Finding  a  vessel  ready,  they  embarked,  and  set  sail 
the  same  evening  for  Sicily  and  Italy,  with  a  fair  wind 
and  a  calm  sea ;  their  voyage  was  without  incident,  and 

1  A  thousand  sacred  prostitutes  were  kept  in  each  of  these  temples. — 
Knight’s  Worship  of  the  Friapus,  p.  104. 

2  A  ship-canal  across  the  Corinthian  isthmus. 


292 


APOLLONIUS 


they  arrived  on  the  seventh  day  at  Dicaearchia  (Pute- 
oli),  the  residence  of  the  philosopher  Demetrius  of 
Sunium,  who  had  formerly  lived  some  time  at  Corinth, 

«  r 

and  where  Apollonius  met  him  fifteen  years  previous. 
He  had  been  banished  from  Italy  by  Nero,  and  re¬ 
called  and  recommended  to  Titus  by  Apollonius  as  a 
desirable  adviser,  and  was  again  under  royal  dis¬ 
pleasure.  When  Apollonius  met  his  old  friend,  who,  in 
living  so  near  Rome,  had  displayed  more  courage  than 
some  of  the  brethren,  although  Apollonius  knew  that 
he  meant  to  keep  Domitian  at  arm’s  length,  he  said 
to  him,  in  way  of  jest,  “  I  am  happy  to  surprise  you, 
Demetrius,  in  the  midst  of  pleasures  and  political 
security,  in  the  most  charming  spot  in  all  Italy,1 
within  sight  of  the  delightful  island  Capreas,  to  which 
the  virtuous  Tiberius  retired  for  expiation ;  and  also 
within  hearing  and  sight  of  the  eternally  contending 
elements  of  Vesuvius ;  in  the  country  where  Ulysses 
is  said  to  have  forgotten,  in  the  company  of  Calypso, 
the  smoke  of  Ithaca,  and  his  family  and  household 
gods.”2  Whereupon  Demetrius  embraced  him,  and, 
first  deprecating  the  omen,  said:  “What  injury  will 
not  philosophy  receive  if  a  man  like  this  should  suffer  ?” 
“What  danger,”  asked  Apollonius,  “is  it  to  which  you 
allude  ?  ”  “  None,  I  am  sure,”  returned  Demetrius, 

“  but  what  you  are  prepared  for ;  for  if  I  don’t  know 
you  I  don’t  know  myself ;  but  let  us  not  talk  here,  let 
us  retire  to  a  more  private  place ;  yet  Damis  is  not  to 
be  excluded,  whom,  by  Hercules,  I  look  on  as  the 

1  No  spot  in  Italy  was  more  desirable  for  country-seats  of  the  nobility 
than  the  immediate  neighborhood  of  Puteoli. 

2  Mythology  and  Fables  of  the  Ancients  (Banier),  vol.  i.  p.  300, 


OF  TYANA . 


293 


Iolaus  of  your  labors.”1  They  retired  to  a  house  not  far 
from  the  town  which  had  formerly  belonged  to  Cicero,2 
for  since  the  death  of  Herennius  and  Arulenes,  A.  D. 
90,  another  order  was  issued  for  all  philosophers  and 
mathematicians  to  leave  Rome  and  Italy.  Epictetus 
had  withdrawn  to  Nicopolis  and  Dio  Prusseus  retired 
among  the  Goths.  Great  circumspection  was,  therefore, 
necessary  in  their  interviews.  In  the  course  of  a  con¬ 
versation  which  lasted  several  hours  Apollonius  said, 
“  What  is  it  you  would  advise  me  to  do  in  order  to  best 
compose  my  fears  ?  ”  “  Do  not  jest  with  me,”  returned 

Demetrius,  “  nor  affect  fear  when  you  have  none.” 
“Would  you,”  asked  Apollonius,  “try  to  make  your 
escape  were  you  circumstanced  as  I  am  ?  ”  “I  would 
not,  I  swear  it  by  Minerva,”  said  Demetrius,  “  if  I  had 
any  hope  of  getting  a  fair  trial.  But  we  have  neither 
law  nor  justice,  nor  a  judge  to  hear  any  defense  ;  and 
were  he  even  to  hear  it,  would  have  you  put  to  death 
though  you  should  be  proven  innocent.  Nor  do  I  deem 


1  A  son  of  Iphiclus,  king  of  Thes¬ 
saly,  who  assisted  Hercules  in  con¬ 
quering  the  Hydra. 

2  Cicero  is  said  to  have  had  eight¬ 
een  villas  in  various  parts  of  Italy. 
There  were  probably  not  over  ten. 
The  one  in  question  was  his  Cuman 
villa,  less  than  a  mile  from  Puteoli. 
It  was  here  that  Cicero  did  his 
finest  work.  There  is  no  doubt, 
from  his  letters,  that  Cicero  was 
very  partial  to  these  enchanting 
shores ;  and  yet  he  makes  com¬ 
plaint  to  Atticus  of  the  frequent 
intrusion  of  idle  visitors.  All  this 
would  seem  to  indicate  that  Ro- 


manelli  was  mistaken  and  Apollo¬ 
nius  correct,  concerning  this  villa 
of  Cicero.  On  the  island  of  Caprese, 
distant  about  fourteen  miles  from 
Puteoli,  Tiberius  had  ten  villas,  and 
it  was  to  one  of  these  he  retreated 
after  he  had  crushed  the  conspiracy 
of  Sejanus,  and  in  which  he  died. 
Many  fine  marbles  have  been  un¬ 
earthed  on  this  island  —  as  the 
Juno  of  Tiberius,  Cybele  of  Tibe¬ 
rius,  Vesta  of  Tiberius.  It  is  said 
that  no  man  ever  lived  who  was 
so  thoroughly  bad  in  principle. — 
C.  Suetonii  Tranquilli ,  vol.  i.  p. 
561,  et  seq. 


2Q4 


APOLLONIUS 


it  unworthy  a  man  to  die  for  his  philosophy.  But  the 
death  which  I  conceive  to  be  worthy  of  a  philosopher 
is,  when  he  dies  in  the  act  of  giving  liberty  to  his 
country,  or  in  avenging  his  parents  or  friends,  or  those 
whom  love  has  procured  and  united  to  him.  But  to  die 
a  cold  and  ignoble  death  out  of  vanity  for  a  cause  little 
approved  of,  but  contumaciously  adhered  to,  and  thereby 
give  the  tyrant  a  pretense  to  think  that  he  acted  right, 
would  be  a  severer  punishment  than  being  whirled  aloft 
in  the  air  on  a  wheel,  Ixion-like,  and  infinitely  less 
luxurious  than  that  of  the  good  Aquillius  who  was  put 
to  death  by  Mithridates  by  pouring  molten  gold  down 
his  throat.  A  strong  point  in  your  defense  will  be 
your  voluntary  appearance  in  court,  which  you  suppose 
will  be  placed  to  the  account  of  a  good  conscience.  And 
even  this  may  fail  you,  for  Domitian  may  be  as  keen  in 
detecting  subtlety  in  philosophers  as  philosophers  are  in 
predicating  artlessness  in  emperors,  a  quality  for  which 
our  beloved  Domitian  has  never  been  considered 
eminent.  It  is  not  more  than  ten  days  since  you  were 
cited,  and  here  you  are  within  two  days  of  Rome,  ready 
for  trial  before  any  time  has  been  thought  of  for  hearing 
you ;  what  think  you  will  be  the  consequence  of  all 
this  ?  It  will  probably  be  considered  a  full  confirmation 
of  the  charge  of  sorcery  and  foreknowledge.  Beware 
of  such  coming  to  pass.  If  you  have  not  forgotten  the 
days  of  Nero  you  will  call  to  remembrance  my  situation 
and  that  I  was  not  one  who  wanted  the  courage  to  die. 
There  were  days  in  Nero’s  life  which  admitted  of  some 
relaxation,  some  respite  from  cruelty  and  murder ;  for 
if  the  harp  of  Nero  always  infamed  the  decorum  becom¬ 
ing  the  imperial  character,  it  sometimes,  nevertheless, 


OF  TYANA. 


295 


tended  to  mitigate  its  severity.  Hence  we  had  a  truce 
with  blood,  a  cessation  with  slaughter  in  my  crisis,  and 
I  was  not  put  to  death,  though  the  sentence  was  sus¬ 
pended  over  me,  and  I  was  spared  simply  because  Nero 
had  succeeded  in  a  favorite  song,  which  he  thought  he 
had  sung  to  admiration ;  he  was  too  much  in  love  with 
himself  to  visit  cruelty  upon  others.  But  you  will 
never  be  called  upon  to  sacrifice  to  sweet  sounds  under 
Domitian,  for  he  neither  derives  comfort  from  himself, 
nor  from  any  other  person ;  there  is  no  corner  in  his 
organism  given  over  to  the  Muses,  he  is  full  of  discord 
and  black  bile.1 

“You  see  many  ships  in  the  harbor,  of  which  some 
are  bound  for  Libya,  Egypt,  and  Phoenicia,  others  for 
Cyprus  and  Sardinia,  and  some  even  for  far  more  dis¬ 
tant  lands.  I  should  think  it  wise  for  you  to  go  aboard 
one  of  them,  and  sail  to  whatever  country  you  like ; 
for  you  will  be  charged  as  an  accomplice  in  the  crime 
for  which  Nerva  and  his  companions  have  been  ban¬ 
ished.  And  you  ought  not  to  forget  the  situation  of 
those  men  (Nerva,  Rufus,  and  Orfitus)  who  are  named 
as  your  accomplices ;  you  will  certainly  prove  their 
ruin,  either  by  showing  too  much  confidence  in  your 
innocence,  or  by  saying  what  you  will  not  be  able  to 
make  believed  concerning  them.  Their  safety  and  your 
own  are  both  before  you.  Precaution  is  better  than 
repentance.”  Kpsiruoov  i\  Tupovoia  [xsta^sksLaq.  Damis, 
who  had  remained  silent,  was  quite  overcome  with  the 
discourse  of  Demetrius,  and  said,  “  I  thank  you  for  the 
friendly  advice  given  my  master,  and  trust  it  may  have 

1  Vie  cP Apollonius  de  Tyane ,  par  Pierre  Jean  Bapt.  Legrand  D’Aussy, 
etc.,  vol.  ii.  p.  201. 


296 


APOLLON/C/S 


an  effect  and  be  useful  to  him ;  for  my  influence  with 
him  avails  but  little,  even  when  I  advise  him  not  to 
run  upon  drawn  swords.  Without  having  seen  you  I 
should  never  have  learned  the  object  of  our  present 
journey.  No  one  is  more  with  him  than  I,  and  yet, 
when  asked  where  I  am  going,  I  appear  quite  ridicu¬ 
lous  in  not  being  able  to  tell ;  for  here  I  am  traversing 
the  Sicilian  seas  and  Tyrrhenean  bays,  and  literally 
know  not  for  what  purpose.  If  I  expose  myself  to 
danger  I  should  at  least  have  the  satisfaction  of  being 
able  to  answer  all  questions  that  were  asked ;  and  if  I 
am  to  be  banished  to  have  at  least  an  opportunity  to 
familiarize  myself  with  the  language  of  the  country  to 
which  I  am  destined.  For  forty  years  past  there  have 
been  no  antagonisms  nor  rivalry  between  me  and  my 
master,  but  should  any  one  ask  me  I  should  certainly 
say  that  in  the  present  case  Apollonius  courts  death, 
and  in  that  respect  I  hope  to  have  it  understood  I  antag¬ 
onize  him ;  still  we  sail  together.  If  I  die,  philosophy 
will  suffer  but  little,  for  I  am  but  an  attendant  upon  a 
courageous  philosopher ;  my  sole  merit  consists  in  fol¬ 
lowing  him. 

“  But  if  they  put  Apollonius  to  death,  they  may, 
in  my  opinion,  boast  of  having  accomplished  much 
indeed  toward  the  extinction  of  philosophy  in  the  de¬ 
struction  of  him  who  of  all  men  was  the  best  able  to 
sustain  her.  We  have  to  contend  with  many  Anytuses 
and  Melituses,  and  many  are  the  accusations  brought 
from  all  sides  against  the  friends  of  my  master.  As  for 
my  part,  I  think  a  man  should  be  willing  to  lay  down 
his  life  rather  than  falsify  his  philosophy,  or  to  permit  a 
desecration  of  his  altars,  his  cities,  or  his  sepulchers, 


OF  TYANA . 


297 


and  many  are  the  illustrious  men  who  have  died  in  the 
defense  of  such  things.  But  I  would  neither  seek  death 
myself  nor  commend  it  in  any  unless  it  were  honorable 
to  die  and  dishonorable  to  live.” 

To  this  Apollonius  replied,  “  We  must  pardon  Damis 
for  his  great  precaution  on  the  present  emergency.  He 
is  an  Assyrian  by  birth,  a  country  of  the  Medes,1  where 
absolute  power  is  respected,  and  consequently  cannot 
be  supposed  to  hold  very  exalted  ideas  of  civil  liberty, 
and  yet  he  is  the  noblest  of  his  race.  I  have  many 
friends  when  I  am  in  favor  at  court  and  when  I 
don’t  need  them,  but  this  fellow  is  my  friend  in 
prosperity  and  adversity,  and  stands  by  me  right  or 
wrong.  As  for  you,  Demetrius,  I  cannot  see  how 
you  can  justify  yourself  to  philosophy  in  the  advice 
you  have  given  me  and  in  arousing  the  fears  of 
Damis.  It  is  easy  to  see  that  I  have  come  here  on  no 
fool’s  errand,  nor  am  I  under  any  apprehension  on 
account  of  my  own  life,  for  the  tyrant’s  power  is  unable 
to  destroy  me,  even  though  I  wished  it  myself.  But 
so  far  as  I  endanger  the  lives  of  others  by  my  conduct, 
I  hold  myself  culpable ;  and  were  I  to  betray  them 
through  my  own  indolence  or  a  want  of  zeal  in  their 
favor^  what  opinion,  I  pray  then,  would  be  formed  of 


1  As  before  stated,  we,  with  Ber¬ 
wick  in  a  note  on  page  31,  think  that 
the  Ninus  there  mentioned  was  on 
the  Euphrates,  a  short  distance  from 
Antioch,  on  the  road  to  Zeugma, 
and  in  Syria  instead  of  Assyria. 
This  would  make  Damis  a  country¬ 
man  of  Julia  Domna,  which  would 
aid  some  other  probabilities  in  this 

38 


biography.  On  page  33  Berwick 
says,  “After  they  had  commenced 
their  journey  they  came  to  the 
bridge  at  Zeugma,  the  boundary 
line  of  Mesopotamia,  where  the 
tollman,  officer  of  customs,  inquired 
of  them  about  their  luggage.”  All 
this  would  be  meaningless  if  Ninus 
on  the  Tigris  in  Assyria  was  meant. 


298 


A  POLL  ONI  US 


me 1  by  all  good  men  ?  I  knew  it  was  impossible  for 
me  to  escape  the  imputation  of  treason ;  it  is  part  of 

the  scheme  of  Domitian  and  his  advisers.  If  now  I 

•  <./ 

should  take  your  advice  and  leave,  and  consequently, 
by  that  act,  impliedly  admit  guilt  and  these  men  be 
put  to  death  as  accomplices,  on  what  coast  could  I  land 
or  to  what  people  fly  ?  I  must  exile  myself  from  the 
Roman  empire  and  go  in  quest  of  friends  to  unknown 
parts  of  the  earth,  or  shall  I  go  to  the  virtuous  Phra- 
otes,  the  noble  king  of  the  Bardenes,  to  the  divine 
Iarchus,  or  the  generous  and  learned  Thespasian  ? 
Were  I  to  go  to  the  savants  of  Ethiopia  (gymnos- 
ophists),  what  could  I  say  to  Thespasian  ?  ‘  O  Thes¬ 

pasian,  Euphrates  has  accused  me  to  you  of  crimes  of 
which  I  am  not  conscious ;  he  has  told  you  I  was  a 
boaster,  fond  of  the  marvelous,  and  despised  the  knowl¬ 
edge  of  the  Ethiopians.  These  things  are  false,  but  I, 
nevertheless,  am  the  betrayer  and  the  executioner  of  my 
friends,  and  all  who  once  knew  and  trusted  me  have 
lost  confidence  in  me.  If  a  crown  of  righteousness  is 
awarded  by  you  for  such  qualities,  I  am  come  to  carry 
it  away ;  I  am  come  to  receive  my  reward  for  having 
destroyed  some  of  the  noblest  men,  and  some  of  the 
first  houses  of  Rome.’  But  I  see,  Demetrius,  you 
blush. 

“  I  have  raised  the  standard  of  liberty,  and  at  the 
moment  she  is  on  trial,  shall  I  desert  her  ?  If  so,  of 
what  friendship  am  I  worthy  after  having  thus  betrayed 


1  All  of  the  writers  who  have  lonius,  but  fail  to  make  comparison 
written  in  defense  of  Christ  against  of  his  courage  and  heroism  with  the 
Apollonius  admit  the  nobleness,  craven  cowardice  of  Jesus  in  the 
magnanimity,  and  bravery  of  Apol-  garden  and  on  the  way  to  execution. 


OF  TYANA. 


299 


my  friends  into  the  very  hands  of  the  executioner  ?  I 
know,  Demetrius,  how  able  you  are  to  abridge  and 
appreciate  all  dissertations,  and  that  you  would  at  this 
time  naturally  address  me  thus,  ‘  Go  not  to  the  dwellers 
on  the  sacred  hill,  but  go  to  men  with  whom  no  inter¬ 
course  of  friendship  has  subsisted ;  if  you  do  this,  your 
flight  will  turn  out  successful  and  you  will  be  concealed 
amongst  a  people  who  know  you  not,  until  the  storm 
has  subsided.’  You  thus  prescribe  for  me  the  physic 
of  preventive,  while  I  consider  my  case  as  demanding 
violent  restoratives.  But  let  us  look  into  the  force  of 
this  matter  in  some  of  its  other  phases.  I  am  of  opin¬ 
ion  that  a  wise  man,  or  one  who  professes  wisdom,  and 
knows  himself,  ought  to  do  none  of  those  conscience- 
upbraiding  things,  even  in  private  or  retirement,  which 
vulgar  minds  frequently  justify  themselves  in  doing 
boastfully  in  public.  The  mind  is  free  and  capable  of 
judging  what  is  proper  to  do,  and  receive  self-plaudits ; 
not  so  with  conscience  ;  it  is  an  immutable  python, 
receiving,  it  is  true,  impressions  from  the  images  which 
the  mind  presents  to  it,  but  which  never  dominates  it. 
If  the  mind  through  a  course  of  patient  pursuit  and 
training,  or  of  instantaneous  selection,  makes  morality 
and  virtue  objects  of  its  choice,  conscience  is  always 
there  and  approves  and  accompanies  with  pleasing 
accord  the  possessor  through  all  the  walks  of  life,  the 
temples,  the  sacrifice,  the  sacred  groves,  and  forsakes 
him  not  in  prison  and  death. 

“  But  if  the  state  of  the  mind,  through  improper 
maturation,  inclines  to  iniquity  and  vice,  conscience 
becomes  an  accusing  daemon,  or  deserts  him  altogether 
and  leaves  him  a  prey  to  the  Furies.  Remember  the 


3oo 


APOLLONIUS 


story  of  Orestes,  the  friend  of  Pylades,1  who  for  the 
murder  of  his  mother  was  tortured  by  the  Furies  —  a 
condemning  conscience.  Now,  from  what  I  have  said, 
I  think  I  have  made  it  clear,  that  whatever  conscience 
approves  it  may  be  safe  to  do,  and  whatever  it  condemns 
leave  undone.  The  reason  of  Demetrius  may  err,  his 
conscience  never.  My  life  is  not  necessary;  to  go  to 
Rome  my  conscience  tells  me  is.  I  shall  therefore  be 
true  to  myself  and  shall  face  the  tyrant.  With  the  ad¬ 
vice  of  the  Spartan  mother  to  her  son,  who  complained 
that  his  sword  was  too  short,  ‘  Go  one  step  nearer,’  and 
the  words  of  Homer  to  encourage  me, 

‘  Mars  is  our  common  Lord,  alike  to  all, 

And  oft  the  victor  triumphs  but  to  fall,’2 

I  go  to  Rome !  for,  as  Thrasea  Paetus 3  used  to  say, 
I  had  rather  be  killed  to-day  than  to  go  into  voluntary 
exile  to-morrow.”  4 

Damis  writes  that  he  was  so  affected  by  the  words 
of  Apollonius  that  he  derived  new  life  from  them,  and 
Demetrius  persisted  no  longer  in  holding  views  at  vari¬ 
ance  with  Apollonius,  declaring  that  he  spoke  with 
divine  instinct  and  was  entitled  to  the  highest  commen¬ 
dations  for  the  dangers  to  which  he  had  exposed  him¬ 
self  for  liberty  and  philosophy.  He  then  offered  to 
take  him  and  his  companions  to  his  lodgings,  which 
Apollonius  begged  leave  to  decline,  from  the  consider¬ 
ation  of  its  growing  late,  and  it  being  his  intention  to 

1  History  of  Classical  Greek  Liter-  3  A  stoic  philosopher,  put  to  death 

ature  (Mahaffy),  vol.  i.  p.  361.  by  Nero  with  other  stoics,  A.  D.  66. 

2  Rendered  by  Pope. — Berwick’s  4  The  Works  of  Epictetus  (Hig- 

Life  of  Apollonius,  p.  390.  ginson),  p.  6. 


OF  TYANA. 


301 


sail  in  the  night,  the  time  appointed  for  the  sailing  of 
the  vessel  on  which  they  had  engaged  passage. 

“  However,”  said  he,  “  when  times  have  mended  we 
will  sup  together;  at  present  the  occasion  might  be 
made  the  excuse  for  charging  you  with  high  treason, 
should  it  be  known  that  you  had  eaten  with  Domitian’s 
enemy.  I  do  not  wish  you  even  to  accompany  us  to 
the  port,  lest  that  very  circumstance  might  involve  you 
in  the  suspicion  of  criminal  designs  against  the  govern¬ 
ment.”  Then  making  a  simple  offering  to  Serapis,  who 
presided  in  a  magnificent  temple  at  this  place,  and 
embracing  Demetrius,  they  left  for  Dicaearchia  (Puteoli), 
and,  as  Demetrius  and  Damis  believed,  to  voluntary 
death  ; 1  and  at  midnight  weighed  anchor,  and  through 


1  Every  true  disciple  of  the  Stoa 
believed  that  it  was  his  privilege  to 
embrace  death  “when  no  higher 
duties  bound  him  to  life,”  and  in  his 
morality  and  high  sense  of  honor 
the  stoic  is  in  advance  of  all  his  con¬ 
temporaries  and  has  been  from  the 
establishment  of  his  philosophy  to 
the  present.  “  To  a  reasonable  crea¬ 
ture,”  says  Epictetus,  “  that  alone  is 
insupportable  which  is  unreason¬ 
able;  but  everything  reasonable 
may  be  supported.  See  how  the 
Spartans  bear  whipping  after  they 
have  reduced  it  to  reason.  Hang¬ 
ing  is  not  insupportable ;  for  as  soon 
as  a  man  has  taken  it  into  his  head 
that  it  is  reasonable,  he  goes  and 
hangs  himself.”  “  God  be  thanked,” 
says  Seneca,  “that  no  one  can  be 
forced  to  live  longer  than  he  de¬ 
sires.”  Among  all  the  stoics, 
whether  Greek  or  Roman,  Seneca 


was  preeminent  as  an  advocate  of 
suicide.  He  did  not  content  him¬ 
self  with  reserving  it  for  desperate 
emergencies ;  he  advised  it  for  almost 
any  evil.  “Does  life  please  you,” 
he  says,  “live  on.” 

Epictetus  could  feel  no  sympa¬ 
thy  with  a  life  full  of  murmurings. 
“  Either  live  contentedly,”  said  he, 
“  or  be  gone ;  at  all  events,  don’t 
live  a  life  of  peevish  complainings. 
The  door  is  open ;  go  if  you  do  not 
wish  to  suffer,  but  if  you  choose  to 
stay,  don’t  complain.” 

Marcus  Aurelius  declared  “that 
a  man  was  the  arbiter  of  his  own 
life.”  Cicero  is  made  the  exponent 
of  the  sentiment,  “To  depart  out  of 
this  life  when  it  no  longer  pleases.” 
Cato  approved  of  suicide  as  a  means 
of  escaping  personal  humiliation  and 
enhancing  personal  dignity.  The 
elder  Pliny  vaunted  man’s  superior- 


302 


APOLLONIUS 


many  mishaps  on  the  third  day  came  to  moorings 
in  the  mouth  of  the  Tiber  (a.  d.  90-1-2). 

The  imperial  sword  was  then  in  the  hands  of  Tacticus 
« 

Lilian,  the  Pretorian  prefect.1  This  man  had  known 
Apollonius  when  in  Egypt  and  loved  him,  and  while  in 
public  he  displayed  the  utmost  zeal  in  prosecuting  the 
enemies  of  Domitian,  yet  he  secretly  used  every  means 
consistent  with  safety  to  both,  to  serve  him.  When 
Atlian  found  that  Apollonius  lay  under  grievous  accu¬ 
sations  he  addressed  the  emperor,  and  said,  “Sophists 
are  nothing  but  prattle  and  flippancy ;  the  art  they 
profess  is  all  for  show,  and  whenever  they  are  unable 
to  derive  a  maintenance  from  it  they  wish  to  die. 
Sophists  of  this  description  do  not  wait  the  voluntary 
approach  of  death,  but  anticipate  it  by  provoking  those 
in  power  to  inflict  it.  It  was  for  this  consideration*,  I 
think,  that  Nero  declined  putting  Apollonius  to  death; 
it  would  attach  to  him  too  much  celebrity. 

“The  same  prince, ”  said  he,  “kept  Musonius,  the 
Tyrrhenian,  who  opposed  his  authority  in  many  in¬ 
stances,  shut  up  in  the  little  island  of  Gyara.” 

In  this  manner  he  tried  to  soothe  the  emperor 
before  Apollonius  arrived ;  and,  when  he  did  arrive, 
ordered  him  to  be  immediately  brought  before  him, 

ity  to  the  gods  in  that  he  may  die  1  There  is  a  discrepancy  about  the 
when  it  pleases  him.  period  in  which  ZElian  flourished. 

Themistocles  committed  suicide,  Thomas,  in  his  Biographical  Dic- 
as  did  Diogenes,  Menedemus  (sue-  tionary,  says  he  flourished  about  the 
cessor  of  Stilpo),  Onesicratus,  Met-  middle  of  the  second  century,  but 
rocles,  Menippus,  Italicus  Demonax,  Philostratus  makes  him  an  officer 
Perigrinus,  Diodorus,  and  Cassius,  under  the  government  of  Domitian. 
—  Suicide ,  Studies  on  its  Philosophy ,  —  Cf.  JFJianus  de  militaribus  Ordin - 

Cateses,  etc.,  by  James  O’Dea,  M.  D.  ibus  instituendis ,  etc.  (F.  Robortelli, 
(New  York,  1882),  p.  30.  1552). 


OF  TYANA. 


303 


when  his  accusers  attacked  him  with  great  violence. 
But  ALlian  requested  them  to  reserve  their  accusations 
for  the  emperor’s  tribunal,  and  proceeded  to  examine 
the  stoic  apart  and  not  in  open  court. 

He  then  retired  with  Apollonius  into  the  most 
private  part  of  the  court,  where  causes  of  the  greatest 
moment  are  tried  sub  silentio,  and  ordered  all  attend¬ 
ants  to  withdraw,  such  being  the  emperor’s  pleasure. 
When  they  were  alone,  AHian  said  to  Apollonius,  “  I 
was  but  a  very  young  man  at  the  time  the  emperor’s 
father,  Vespasian,  went  into  Egypt  to  sacrifice,  and  to 
advise  with  you  on  the  state  of  affairs  at  Rome.  I 
accompanied  him  as  a  military  tribune,  in  consequence 
of  the  knowledge  I  possessed  of  the  art  of  war.  I 
remember  you  received  me  with  so  much  kindness, 
which,  with  the  importance  attached  to  your  councils 
by  the  emperor,  made  a  lasting  impression  upon  me, 
and  I  seem  to  have  been  commissioned  by  the  gods 
to  do  you  service,  for  I  assure  you  the  danger  to 
you  is  imminent.  I  am  here  the  guardian  of  a  cruel 
tyranny.  If  I  fail  to  discharge  any  part  of  my  duty  my 
punishment  is  certain.  I  have  already  given  you  a 
proof  of  my  friendship,  and  what  I  told  you  from  the 
beginning  of  my  unceasing  regard  for  you  may,  I 
think,  be  sufficient  to  call  to  remembrance  my  char¬ 
acter.  My  wishing  to  speak  to  you  alone  on  the 
charges  of  your  accuser,  is  a  mere  pretense  and  con¬ 
trivance  of  mine  to  show  you  the  confidence  that  is 
placed  in  me  at  this  court,  and  communicate  confiden¬ 
tially  to  you  what  you  have  to  expect  from  the  emperor. 
I  know  not  what  sentence  he  will  pass  on  your  case, 
but  I  know  he  is  very  much  in  the  temper  of  those 


304 


APOLLONIUS 


judges  who  wish  to  condemn  and  yet  are  ashamed  to 
do  so  without  some  solid  grounds ;  besides,  he  is  desir¬ 
ous  to  do  what  ought  not  to  be  done,  and  to  do  it 
under  the  cloak  of  justice.” 

Apollonius,  when  he  heard  this,  said,  “  I  shall  in 
future  speak  to  you  without  reserve,  for  as  you  have 
opened  your  mind  to  me,  I  shall  do  the  same  to  you. 
I  had  it  in  my  power  to  escape  this  peril  by  flight,  for 
there  are  still  many  parts  of  the  earth  not  subject  to 
your  power,  to  which  I  might  have  retired.  I  could 
have  found  an  asylum  with  wise  men,  men  much  wiser 
than  myself,  who  worship  the  gods  according  to  right 
reason ;  in  a  country  inhabited  by  a  people  much  more 
pious  than  the  people  of  Rome,  among  whom  exists 
neither  information  nor  accusation ;  a  people  who  com¬ 
mit  no  willful  injury  themselves,  and  whose  example 
is  a  successful  bar  against  any  infraction  by  others, 
and  who  have  no  need  of  inquisitions  or  courts  of  jus¬ 
tice.  But,  fearing  to  incur  the  imputation  of  guilt  and 
the  character  of  a  traitor,  should  I  dodge  a  defense,  and 
that  they  who  are  in  danger  on  my  account  should 
suffer  in  consequence,  I  am  come  to  plead  my  own 
cause.  My  first  great  need  now  is  to  know  the  nature 
of  the  accusation  against  me,  in  order  that  I  may  pre¬ 
pare  for  my  defense.” 

“  Among  the  charges  preferred  against  you  are 
the  peculiarities  of  your  dress,1  your  mode  of  living 
[having  relation  probably  to  his  food  and  wandering 
habits],  the  adoration  paid  to  you  ;  your  answer  to  the 

1  It  will  be  remembered  that  Apollonius’s  dress  and  food  were  entirely 
vegetarian.  He  wore  no  manner  of  clothing  which  had  an  animal  struc¬ 
ture  or  animal  tissue. — Apollonius  von  Tyana  und  Christus  (Baur). 


OF  TYANA . 


305 


Ephesians,  relative  to  the  plague ;  of  words  spoken  in 
public  and  private  against  the  emperor ;  but  the  grav¬ 
est  of  all  is  the  charge  of  having  met  Nerva  in  a  field 
and  there  sacrificed  an  Arcadian  boy  for  him,  in  order 
to  determine  an  augury  for  the  death  of  the  emperor, 
and  secure  the  empire  for  Nerva.  All,  except  the  last, 
are  merely  collateral ;  your  apology  must  be  directed 
principally  against  the  sacrifice.  And  I  beg  that  you 
will  speak  so  as  to  give  no  occasion  for  offense  to  the 
emperor.”  To  which  Apollonius  replied  :  “  I  shall  sub¬ 
mit  my  conduct  to  your  judgment,  first,  on  account 
of  your  own  worth,  and  next,  the  regard  you  have 
ever  shown  for  me.” 

He  was  then  placed  in  custody  by  the  keepers  of 
the  prison  to  await  the  pleasure  of  the  emperor. 

One  day  a  tribune  who  knew  Apollonius,  having 
met  him  before,  asked  him,  when  he  passed  the  cell, 
the  cause  of  his  present  trouble,  to  which  he  replied 
that  he  did  not  know.  “  I  do,”  said  the  tribune ;  “  it  is 
in  consequence  of  the  worship  paid  you  by  the  people 
of  Ephesus,  which  has  given  rise  to  the  charge  of  blas¬ 
phemy,  and  in  your  trying  on  other  occasions  to  pass 
yourself  off  as  one  of  the  gods.”  “  Is  that  all  ?  ”  replied 
Apollonius.  “  When  I  was  a  boy  at  Ephesus,”  said  the 
tribune,  “  you  delivered  the  city  from  the  plague,  and 
multitudes  worshiped  you.”  “They  did  well,”  said 
Apollonius,  “  as  did  the  city  of  Ephesus  when  deliv¬ 
ered  from  such  a  calamity.  But  why  am  I  here  instead 
of  the  Ephesians  who  committed  the  blasphemy  ?  They 
probably  occupy  the  next  cell.”  “  But,”  continued  the 
tribune,  “  I  have  found  out  the  means  of  saving  you,  and 
drawing  you  out  of  your  present  difficulty.  It  is  said 
39 


30  6 


APOLLONIUS 


that  you  have  great  magical  powers ;  let  us  go  out  of 
the  city,  and  if  I  cut  off  your  head  with  this  sword  all 
these  accusations  against  you  will  fall  to  the  ground,  and 
you  will  stand  acquitted ;  but  if  you  so  terrify  me  by 
your  acts  as  to  make  the  sword  drop  out  of  my  hands, 
then  we  shall  know  that  you  are  a  god,  and  will  wor¬ 
ship  you  as  such  by  a  public  decree.”  1 

Apollonius  never  once  affected  to  hear  the  last  re¬ 
mark,  but  continued  his  conversation  with  Damis.  This 
was  the  same  mischievous  tribune  who  had  previously 
preferred  charges  against  Aristides,  and  wished  to 
have  him  banished.  The  next  day  Apollonius  was 
removed  by  ^Elian  into  another  prison,  where  the 
prisoners  were  not  bound.  There  were  many  persons 
confined  in  this  prison,  charged  with  Various  offenses. 
There  was  a  man  from  Cilicia  who  told  Apollonius 
that  the  real  cause  of  his  confinement  was  his  wealth, 
of  which  some  one  had  been  covetous.  “  If,”  said 
Apollonius,  “  you  have  obtained  your  wealth  by  un¬ 
justifiable  means,  by  dark  transactions,  then  it  ought 
to  be  confiscated,  and  given  to  the  rightful  owner.” 
“  My  property,”  said  the  Cilician,  “  has  arisen  from 
numerous  relations,  all  of  which  has  at  last  centered 
in  myself.  Informers  and  spies  have  abused  me,  have 
threatened  to  report  me  as  a  disloyal  subject;  by  my 
wealth  I  have  purchased  their  silence.  And  after  I  had 
made  great  accessions  to  my  wealth  in  trade,  both  by 

1  On  ne  comprend  pas  bien  (says  etre  dit  serieusement;  et  on  ne 
Dupin)  le  dessein  de  cet  homme,  peut  excuser  Apollone  de  l’appro- 
ou  plutot  de  Philostrate,  dans  cette  bation  qu’il  donne  a  ceux  qui  lui 
histoire ;  mais  quel  qu’il  puisse  etre,  avoient  rendu  des  honneurs  divins 
on  ne  croira  jamais,  que  cela  ait  pu  a  Ephese. 


OF  TYANA. 


307 


sea  and  land,  I  became  such  a  slave  to  fear  that  I  gave 
part  of  it  to  sycophants  to  stop  their  mouths,  part  to 
magistrates  to  defend  me  against  cheats  and  impostors, 
part  to  relations  to  keep  down  envyings  and  jealousies, 
and  part  to  my  slaves  to  keep  them  from  growing 
worse  under  pretense  of  being  neglected  by  me.  And, 
notwithstanding  all  the  care  I  have  taken  to  secure 
my  riches  and  to  fence  them  around,  here  I  am  in  this 
great  peril,  nor  do  I  know  whether  I  shall  come  safe 
out  of  it  or  not.” 

Here  also  was  confined  the  chief  magistrate  of  Ta- 
rentum,  who  had  to  vindicate  himself  from  the  charge 
of  having  omitted  to  say  that  Domitian  was  the  son  of 
Pallas,  in  a  sacrifice  which  he  had  made.  To  him 
Apollonius  replied,  “You  forsooth  believed  this  incred¬ 
ible  inasmuch  that  Pallas  never  brought  forth  by  reason 
of  her  perpetual  virginity,  but  are  you  ignorant  of  the 
fact  that  this  goddess  was  accessory  in  giving  the 
Athenians  Erichthonius,  a  deformed  monster,  with  tails 
of  a  serpent  instead  of  legs  ?  He  was  supposed  to  have 
been  the  son  of  Vulcan.”1 

There  were  about  fifty  persons  of  rank  confined  in 
this  prison,  charged  with  various  offenses  against  the 
person  and  royalty  of  Domitian,  many  of  whom  were 
dejected  in  spirits,  and  in  expectation  of  death  were 
bemoaning  their  hard  fate.  Whereupon  Apollonius, 
calling  them  together,  thus  addressed  them,  “  O  you,  who 
are  my  companions  in  this  dreary  abode,  I  am  sorry  to 
see  that  you  by  your  fretfulness  are  gradually  putting 
yourselves  to  death  before  it  is  known  whether  the 
information  against  you  will  be  sufficient  to  destroy  you 
1  He  was  a  fabled  king  of  Athens  who  built  the  Erechtheum. 


3°8 


APOLLONIUS 


or  not.  You  ought  not  so  to  conduct  yourselves,  but 
should  take  comfort  from  the  words  of  Archilochus  the 
Parian,  who  said,  under  conditions  similar  to  ours, 
‘  Endurance  and  patience  in  adversity  are  inventions 
of  the  gods,  to  enable  us  to  bear  the  evils  of  life  with¬ 
out  despondency/  Do  not  then  account  those  things 
so  grievous  which  you  endure  and  which  you  cannot 
help,  and  to  which  others  have  exposed  themselves  of 
their  own  free  will  and  choice  for  the  common  weal  of 
humanity.  It  is  true,  if  you  are  conscious  of  any  guilt, 
you  should  lament  the  day  in  which  your  hearts  de¬ 
ceived  you  and  made  you  do  unlawful  or  disloyal  things. 
But  believe  me,  your  courage  should  rise  in  proportion 
to  the  sorrow  you  feel  for  those  most  nearly  connected 
with  you.  Exorcise  yourselves  for  such  trials  of  endur¬ 
ance.”  These  and  many  other  words  of  encouragement 
Apollonius  uttered  to  the  prisoners,  many  of  whom 
took  courage  and  began  to  entertain  hopes,  and  re¬ 
mained  hopeful  so  long  as  he  was  with  them. 

The  next  day,  while  he  was  haranguing  them  in 
the  same  strain,  a  person  entered  the  prison,  who  had 
been  sent  by  Domitian  to  take  an  account  of  the  phi¬ 
losopher.  He  had  a  melancholy  air,  and  was,  he  said, 
in  imminent  danger,  and  spoke  with  contumely  of  the 
emperor.  Apollonius,  seeing  at  once  the  snare  that  was 
laid  for  him,  said  nothing  which  could  serve  his  purpose. 
He  talked  of  rivers,  and  mountains,  and  wild  beasts, 
and  trees,  and  all  this,  while  it  amused  the  other  prison¬ 
ers,  profited  the  informer  nothing.  He  tried,  however, 
to  induce  Apollonius  to  say  something  disrespectful  of 
the  tyrant;  but  he  was  on  his  guard,  and  adroitly 


OF  TYANA. 


309 


turned  the  scales  upon  him  in  this  manner:  “You  may 
say  what  evil  you  please,  my  friend,  of  the  emperor; 
your  great  prudence  is  unnecessary ;  you  need  have  no 
fear  of  me,  for  I  will  never  turn  informer;  but  I  will 
tell  him  in  person  whatever  I  consider  reprehensible  in 
his  conduct.” 

Many  other  things  transpired  in  the  prison,  some  the 
effects  of  mere  chance ;  others  designedly  and  insidi¬ 
ously  contrived,  in  order  to  entrap  Apollonius.  Damis 
speaks  of  them  all,  in  order;  he  says,  apologizing  for 
the  omission,  “  they  are,  however,  of  no  great  moment 
and  deserve  little  attention.”  On  the  evening  of  the 
fifth  day  of  his  confinement  a  stranger  came  into  the 
prison,  who  used  the  Greek  tongue,  and  asked  where 
the  Tyanean  was.  He  then  took  him  aside  from 
the  prisoners,  and  said,  “  The  emperor  will  speak  to 
you  to-morrow,  and  the  keeper  has  been  ordered  "to 
see  that  you  are  supplied  with  everything  necessary.” 
“But,”  said  Apollonius,  “I  want  nothing.”  “Would 
you  not,”  returned  the  messenger,  “wish  the  advice  of 
a  friend,  to  instruct  you  how  to  address  the  emperor  ?  ” 
“I  should,  indeed,”  said  he,  “provided  he  did  not 
advise  me  to  flatter  him.”  “But  suppose,”  replied 
the  messenger,  “  he  were  to  advise  you  not  to  treat 
him  with  disrespect,  nor  to  speak  to  him  with  inso¬ 
lence  ?  ”  “I  thank  you,”  said  Apollonius,  “  for  the 
kindly  hint.”  “It  was  for  this  purpose,”  returned  the 
messenger,  “that  I  was  sent  here.”  “Let  not  the 
harsh  and  dissonant  voice  of  the  emperor,  or  his  bloated 
and  bilious  countenance,  or  his  heavy  and  terrible  eye¬ 
brows  intimidate  you,  O  Tyanean,  for  they  are  natural 


3io 


APOLLONIUS 


and  unavoidable  defects.”  “  I  shall  endeavor,”  said 
Apollonius,  “to  show  as  little  fear  as  Ulysses  when 
surprised  in  the  cave  of  Polyphemus.” 

On  the  sixth  day,  as  soon  as  it  was  light,  Apollonius 
arose  and  paid  his  adoration  to  the  rising  sun,  in  as 
acceptable  a  manner  as  the  unfitness  of  the  place  would 
permit ;  and,  after  his  devotions,  he  talked  with  all 
who  came  to  him  on  subjects  of  their  own  selection. 
About  midday  an  officer  of  the  court  arrived,  order¬ 
ing  his  attendance  at  the  palace,  who  said  he  came  to 
have  him  in  readiness  before  he  was  called.  “  Let  us 
go  at  once,”  said  Apollonius,  and  he  forthwith  set  out 
with  some  eagerness.  As  he  passed  along,  guarded 
by  four  officers  who  attended  him,  but  who  kept  at  a 
greater  distance  from  him  than  was  usual  when  guard¬ 
ing  a  common  prisoner,  thereby  admitting  his  rank, 
Damis  followed  him,  but  with  great  fear  and  pensive¬ 
ness.  All  eyes  were  turned  upon  Apollonius ;  his  sin¬ 
gular  dress  attracted  their  attention  as  well  as  their 
sympathies  and  admiration  for  him,  in  consequence  of 
the  dangers  he  had  encountered  in  behalf  of  Nerva, 
Rufus,  and  Orfitus ;  he  had  conciliated  the  affections 
of  all,  even  his  enemies,  for  in  their  hearts  the  people 
despised  Domitian. 

As  they  stood  before  the  palace  gates  waiting  for 
admission,  Apollonius  observed,  in  the  great  crowd 
passing  and  repassing,  the  attentions  and  compliments 
which  were  mutually  given  and  received  by  different 
classes  of  people,  some  unfortunately  in  position,  others 
seeking  to  get  in.  One  man,  of  imposing  presence  and 
address,  who,  he  was  told,  had  worn  himself  out  in 
the  service  of  an  ungrateful  master,  and  was  now  can- 


OF  TYANA. 


31 1 

vassing  for  the  government  of  an  outlying  province, 
and  on  that  account  was  paying  the  most  servile  court 
to  the  emperor.  “  O  Damis,”  said  Apollonius,  “  Sopho¬ 
cles  himself  would  be  impotent,  with  all  his  logic,  to 
persuade  this  man  to  rather  fly  than  court  this  wild 
and  truculent  master.”  “A  master  whom  we,  too, 
have  of  our  own  accord  selected,”  replied  Damis,  “  and 
before  whose  gates  we  also  now  stand  as  mendicant 
suitors.”  “  I  believe,”  said  Apollonius,  “  you  imagine 
Abacus  to  be  the  keeper  of  these  gates,  as  he  is  said  to 
be  of  those  of  hell,  and  which  you  are  about  to 
enter,  for  you  appear  to  have  lost  all  courage  and  are 
like  a  dead  man.”  “  Not  quite  a  dead  man  yet,” 
replied  Damis,  “  but  like  one  with  whom  the  ritual  of 
the  dead  was  shortly  to  become  an  interesting  formu¬ 
lary  ;  and  I  am  fearful  that  Domitian  has  it  in  his  heart 
to  deprive  me  of  my  master’s  service  for  that  conclud¬ 
ing  sacrament.”  “And  so,  Damis,”  said  Apollonius, 
“  you  still  seem  faint-hearted  in  contemplation  of  death, 
notwithstanding  your  long  attachment  to  me,  who  have 
been  a  philosopher  from  my  youth.  I  thought  you 
were  prepared  for  death.”  “  It  is  a  matter,”  replied 
Damis,  “  for  which  I  have  no  great  zest.  And  then 
I  have  been  taught  by  my  master  that  philosophers 
should  consider  the  time  most  fitting  them  to  die, 
so  that  they  may  leave  the  world  with  greater  delib¬ 
eration,  and  not  after  the  manner  of  men  taken  by 
surprise.” 

As  soon  as  the  emperor  was  at  leisure  Apollonius 
was  introduced  into  the  palace  by  the  officers  in  wait¬ 
ing,  who  would  not  permit  Damis  to  follow  him.  The 
emperor  had  on  his  head  a  garland  of  green  boughs, 


312 


APOLLON/C/S 


and  had  stopped  a  moment  at  the  Hall  of  Adonis.1  He 
was  still  intent  on  the  thoughts  of  the  sacrifice  in  which 
he  had  been  engaged,  as  Apollonius  approached  from 
the  opposite  direction ;  turning  about  and  being  struck 
with  the  extraordinary  appearance  of  the  man,  he  cried 
out,  “O  JEYmn,  you  have  brought  me  a  daemon  !”  At 
this,  Apollonius,  without  the  least  hesitation  or  intimb 
dation,  said,  “  O  Emperor,  I  was  considering  you  like 
Diomede  at  Troy,  under  the  protection  of  Pallas,2  who 
purged  his  eyes  of  that  mist  which  dims  the  sight  of 
mortals,  and  gave  him  the  faculty  of  distinguishing 
between  gods  and  men.3  But  from  your  eyes,  O 
Emperor,  the  goddess  has  not  yet  removed  the  mist, 
otherwise  you  would  have  known  better  than  to  class 
men  with  daemons.”  “But  how  long,  philosopher,”  asked 
the  emperor,  “  is  it  since  your  eyes  were  purged 
from  darkness?”  “Since  I  began  the  study  of  phi¬ 
losophy,”  replied  Apollonius.  “  How  is  it,  then,”  said 
he,  “  that  you  adore  as  gods  my  greatest  enemies  ?  ” 

1  The  feast  of  Adonis  was  cele-  cannot  persuade  by  reason.  When 

brated  in  most  of  the  Grecian  cities  stoics  were  pining  in  Corsican  pris- 
in  honor  of  Venus,  and  in  memory  ons,  wasting  away  on  desolate  rocky 
of  her  beloved  Adonis.  Images,  or  islands,  or  accepting  self-destruc- 
pictures,  of  Adonis  and  Venus  were  tion  to  escape  fiendish  vengeance, 
brought  forth  with  all  the  pomp  and  it  was  enough  to  humble  a  philoso- 
ceremonies  used  at  funerals ;  the  pher  of  sterner  and  more  youthful 
women  tore  their  hair  and  beat  nerves  than  Apollonius.  But  Apol- 
their  breasts.  lonius  stood  his  ground,  nor  did 

2  Powerless  before  an  omnipotent  one  murmur  escape  him.  He  had 
will,  we  rather  pity  than  condemn  taken  the  cup,  and  had  prepared  to 
an  Apollonius,  an  Ovid,  a  Seneca,  drink  it  to  its  dregs,  without  whin- 
or  a  Tasso,  who  seek  to  propitiate  ing  or  complaining. —  Philostrati, 
by  flattery  the  brute  wdiom  they  leones ,  etc.,  1503. 

3  “  I  also  purge  thy  sight,  the  mist  that  once 
Obscured  it  fled,  thou  shalt  distinguish  gods 
From  mortals  clearly.”  Homer,  Iliad ,  b.  v. 


OF  TYANA. 


313 


“  Do  you,  then,  war  with  the  Indian  philosophers, 
Iarchas  and  Phraotes,  who,  of  all  men,  are  the  only 
ones  whom  I  consider  in  any  sense  deserving  of 
the  appellation  of  gods  ?  ”  “  Answer  me,”  said  Domi- 

tian,  “  as  to  Nerva,  your  friend,  and  his  accomplices.” 
“Do  you,  then,  command  me  to  plead  the  cause  of 
Nerva  ?  ”  “I  do,”  returned  the  emperor.  “  Listen, 
then,”  said  Apollonius,  “  for  I  shall  conceal  no  truth. 
I  know  that  Nerva  is  the  most  moderate  and  mildest 
of  men,  I  know  that  he  is  much  attached  to  you,  I 
know  that  he  is  an  excellent  magistrate,  I  know  that 
he  is  little  disposed  to  meddle  in  affairs  of  state,  and  I 
know  that  you  have  been  misinformed  concerning  him. 
He  is  not  the  man,  O  Emperor,  to  attempt  innovations 
in  governments,  or  to  lend  assistance  to  those  who  do.” 
On  hearing  this  the  emperor  became  furious  with 
anger,  and  exclaimed,  “  And  he,  I  suppose,  if  interro¬ 
gated  about  you,  would  probably  say  that  you  were 
neither  an  enchanter,  nor  hot-headed,  nor  a  braggart, 
nor  covetous,  nor  a  despiser  of  the  law ;  so  much  are 
ye  all  agreed  in  crime.”  Apollonius  listened  calmly  to 
all  he  had  to  say,  and  replied,  “  It  is  not  honest  in  you, 
O  Emperor,  nor  agreeable  to  law,  either  to  enter  into  a 
judicial  discussion  of  what  you  are  already  persuaded, 
nor  to  be  persuaded  of  that,  the  merits  of  which  have 
not  been  discussed.  If  such  is  your  pleasure,  permit 
me  to  begin  my  defense  with  saying  that  you  are  prej¬ 
udiced  against  me,  and  more  unjust  than  the  common 
informer,  for  what  he  pledges  himself  to  prove  you 
have  passed  upon  without  proof.”  “Begin  then,”  said 
Domitian,  “  where  you  please ;  I  know  where  I  ought 
to  begin  and  end.” 

40 


314 


APOLLONIUS 


After  this  the  emperor  treated  Apollonius  with  great 
contempt  and  severity ;  he  ordered  his  hair  and  beard 
cut  off,  and  commanded  that  he  be  sent  back  to  prison, 
loaded  with  irons,  and  cast  among  the  vilest  felons, 
but  he  deferred  taking  summary  vengeance.  ^Eiian 
managed  to  communicate  to  Apollonius  that  all  these 
things  were  favorable  omens. 

As  he  was  being  remanded  back  to  prison,  Apollonius 
playfully  remarked,  “  I  did  not  know  that  I  had  in¬ 
curred  this  great  danger  on  account  of  my  hair.” 
Damis,  who  had  received  new  life  from  the  course 
matters  had  taken,  responded,  “You  will  be  above 
suspicion  from  that  cause  in  the  future.” 

Two  days  after  he  had  been  bound  in  chains,  a 
stranger  entered  the  prison,  who  said  he  could  be  of 
service  to  him,  if  allowed  a  conference,  and  the  object 
of  his  visit  was  to  advise  with  him  on  his  present  situa¬ 
tion.  He  was  a  Syracusan,  the  mind  and  tongue  of 
Domitian ,  and,  like  a  former  visitor  on  a  like  errand, 
was  suborned  by  the  emperor;  but  the  part  he  acted 
was  better  contrived  and  not  so  easily  discovered. 
The  former  took  a  most  circuitous  way  of  sounding 
Apollonius ;  the  present  guest  began  his  attack  at  once, 
exclaiming,  “  Who,  O  ye  gods,  could  have  thought  of 
binding  the  Tyanean  in  chains  ?  And,  pray,  how  do 
your  legs  bear  the  fetters?”  All  the  Syracusan  said 
was  spoken  with  an  insidious  design  of  trying  his  tem¬ 
per,  and  cause  him  to  reproach  the  emperor  as  the 
author  of  his  sufferings.  But  Apollonius  knew  too 
well  the  purpose  of  the  interview  and  never  lost  his 
presence  of  mind  for  one  moment.  At  last  the  Syra^ 
cusan,  being  reduced  to  silence  by  the  well-timed  and 


OF  TYANA. 


315 


evasive  answers  which  fell  from  the  lips  of  Apollonius, 
said,  “You  have  incurred  the  emperor’s  displeasure  on 
many  accounts,  but  particularly  on  account  of  Nerva  and 
his  friends,  who  have  escaped,  although  guilty  of  high 
treason.  Certain  false  accusations  have  also  been  car¬ 
ried  to  him  of  some  discourses  held  by  you  in  Ionia, 
and  which  have  been  reported  as  uttered  with  the  most 
hostile  tendency.  But,  as  far  as  I  understand,  the 
emperor  pays  little  or  no  attention  to  such  calumnies, 
because  his  displeasure  on  the  present  occasion  has 
arisen  from  subjects  of  higher  moment.  And  yet,  the 
man  who  has  given  him  all  his  present  information  is 
one  who  stands  high  in  reputation.”  “You  allude,” 
said  Apollonius,  “  to  some  person  who  once  gained  a 
crown  by  excelling  at  the  Olympic  games,  and  now  sup¬ 
poses  he  can  win  another  in  excelling  in  calumny.  I 
know  you  mean  Euphrates,  to  whom  I  am  indebted  for 
many  similar  kindnesses.  He  anticipated  my  visit  to  the 
gymnosophists  of  Ethiopia  and  poured  venom  in  their 
ears,  and  had  I  not  had  a  previous  knowledge  of  the 
machinations  of  the  man,  I  should  have  been  compelled 
to  return  without  accomplishing  the  object  of  my  mis¬ 
sion.”  The  Syracusan,  amazed  at  these  revelations, 
said,  “  Do  you  think  it  then  of  less  account  to  be 
accused  by  the  emperor  than  to  be  underrated  by 
the  gymnosophists  on  account  of  the  deception  of 
Euphrates?”  “I  do,  indeed,  for  I  went  to  them  to 
acquire  knowledge,  and  I  came  here  to  communicate 
it.”  “To  communicate  what,  are  you  come?”  inquired 
the  Syracusan.  “  I  came  to  deny  in  person  the  calum¬ 
nies  of  my  traducers.  I  came  to  report  with  my  own 
lips  that  I  am  of  good  repute,  and  have  an  honestly 


3i  6 


APOLLONIUS 


acquired  fame,  of  all  which  the  emperor  is  ignorant !  ” 
The  Syracusan  then  left  the  prison  and  went  out,  testi¬ 
fying  his  admiration  of  Apollonius,  and  that  he  believed 
him  more  than  a  philosopher. 

As  soon  as  he  was  gone,  Apollonius  turned  to  Damis, 
saying,  “Did  you  understand  that  Python  ?  ”  “  I  did,” 
said  he,  “  and  knew  he  was  suborned  for  the  very  pur¬ 
pose  of  taking  you  by  surprise.”  1 

Damis  says  Apollonius  held  many  similar  conver¬ 
sations  with  persons  attached  to  the  court  of  Domitian, 
but  declared  that  for  himself  he  had  lost  all  hope  and 
knew  of  no  way  of  escape  from  the  present  difficulties 
except  what  might  arise  from  prayers  to  the  gods,  which 
had  saved  them  from  greater  perils.  Some  time  before 
midday,  Damis  said,  “  O  Tyanean,  what  do  you  think 
will  become  of  us?”  “Nothing  but  what  has  usually 
happened  to  us ;  there  will  be  a  way  provided  by  the 
gods  for  us  out  of  this ;  no  one  will  be  put  to  death.” 
“But  when  will  you  be  set  at  liberty?”  “To-mor¬ 
row,”  answered  Apollonius,  “  if  it  depended  solely  on 
the  judge,  and  this  instant  if  it  depended  on  myself.” 
And,  without  a  word  more,  he  drew  his  leg  out  of  the 
fetters,  and  said  to  Damis,  “You  see  the  liberty  I  enjoy, 
and  I  hope  you  will  keep  up  your  spirits,  and  I  shall 
behave  myself  like  a  man  bound  in  chains.” 

While  Apollonius  was  making  these  revelations  to 
Damis,  and  talking  to  him  on  various  subjects,  a  person 
entered  the  prison  with  the  following  message  from 
Domitian :  “  The  emperor  says  he,  at  the  solicitations 
of  Ailian,  orders  you  to  be  released  from  your  fetters,  and 

1  Python  was  a  Byzantine  orator,  the  son  of  Augustus,  to  persuade 
who  possessed  great  powers  of  per-  the  Greeks  to  submit  to  his  yoke, 
suasion.  He  was  sent  by  Philip,  He  was  opposed  by  Demosthenes. 


OF  TYANA. 


31 7 


gives  you  leave  to  inhabit  a  more  roomy  apartment  till 
the  time  for  your  making  your  defense  arrives,  and  which, 
I  hear, will  be  allowed  you  five  days  hence.”  “But  who,” 
said  he,  “  will  take  me  out  of  this  place  ?  ”  “I  myself,” 
answered  the  stranger;  “follow  me.”  As  soon  as  he 
entered  the  new  apartment,  it  being  the  same  pre¬ 
viously  occupied  by  him,  they  who  were  confined  there 
recognized  him,  and  ran  and  embraced  him  as  one 
restored  to  them  contrary  to  all  expectation ;  they 
believed  he  had  suffered  death  under  the  sentence  of 
Domitian.  Their  love  for  Apollonius  was  on  account 
of  his  good  advice,  his  gentleness,  and  the  hopeful  view 
in  which  he  regarded  their  cases,  and  they  expressed 
their  regard  for  him  in  the  most  public  manner,  be¬ 
lieving  him  more  than  human. 

The  day  after,  Apollonius  called  Damis  to  him,  and 
said,  “  I  must  now  prepare  my  defense,  to  be  ready 
for  the  time  appointed  for  my  hearing.  You  will  depart 
from  here  at  once  and  take  the  Appian  Way  to  Neapolis, 
and  thence  to  Dicaearchia  (Puteoli),  and  go  on  foot,  as 
it  is  the  safer  mode  of  traveling;  you  will  there  meet 
Demetrius  ;  salute  him,  and  turn  to  the  seaside,  opposite 
the  island  of  Calypso,  and  there  I  will  meet  you.”  “What, 
alive!  ”  said  Damis,  “or  how  else?”  At  hearing  this 
Apollonius  laughed  and  answered,  “Alive  in  my  opinion, 
but  in  yours  raised  from  the  dead.”1  Damis  says,  he 
set  out  sore  against  his  will,  his  mind  alternating 


1  There  is  but  little  doubt  that 
Apollonius  had  had  assurance  from 
yEIian  that  he  was  to  be  released, 
or,  as  it  would  seem  more  probable 
from  the  sequel,  means  offered  him 
to  escape,  and  thereby  save  Do¬ 
mitian  the  odium  of  executing  a 


beggar.  Confirmatory  of  this,  Apol¬ 
lonius  seemed  to  know  that  he 
would  not  be  pursued.  All  this  he 
undoubtedly  kept  from  Damis,  either 
as  a  matter  of  policy,  or  to  preserve 
in  Damis  the  illusion  of  his  divine 
nature  and  influence  of  the  gods. 


HE  SUN,  SUNDAY.  MAY  9.  1909. 


Ik  could 
nany 
bnlv 


hiu’e  to  vnillils  leisure.  lie  seems  bent 
on  approaching  it  from  an  entirely  new 
direction  und  rin  avoiding  to  some  ex¬ 
tent  that  small  but  serried  band  which 
Mr.  Hitchcock  understands  ao  well. 

Similarly,  the  volunteer  Democratic 
advisers  by  whom  Mr.  Ta  ft  is  so  closely 
‘beleaguered  at  this  time  will  have  to 
‘ike  things  easy  for  a  while.  In  a 
tMtlesa  and  impetuous  moment  Mr. 
once  said  that  he  intended  to  ap- 
for  Federal  Judges  at.  the  South 
of  the  very  highest  character, 
at  end  would  choose  Demo- 
sr  than  fall  short  of  his  pat- 
pose.  This  was  a  fine  and 
rapce  enough,  but  it  were 
e  confided  it  to  the  four 
make  it  flagrant.  It  has 
\  to 


apoumxivs  or  tyana. 

'  False  gods  have  always  been  and  always 
will  abound.  The  number  of  pseudo 
Messia ha  and  impostors  masquerading 
as  prophets  must  be  enormous.  Man¬ 
kind  loves  to  be  fooled,  and  every  minute 
a,  credulous  being  is  born.  Some  icono- 
oiast  records  seventeen  crucified  saviors, 
and  before  Christ  appeared  there  were 
wild  fanatics  who  catted  themselves 
Christs  and  preached  the  gospels  of  an¬ 
archy.  It  is  only  necessary  to  reoail  the 
name  of  Krishna,  so  eloquently  described 
ip  George  Borrow’s  “The  Romany  Rye." 
It  should  not  be  forgotten  that  at  a  criti¬ 
cal  moment  for  Christianity  the  cult  of 
Mithra  threatened  to  engulf  it.  Simon 
Magus  pretended  to  perform  the  miracles 
of  the  Apostles,  and  like  the  Phaeton  legend 
a; story  is  related  of  this  magician  flying 

a  veritable  storm  of  |  riewm‘‘}air  at  ".‘e  oi™*  ,and  beyond  ,he 

lolioitatiou,  which  has  rtdn'l  aU?L“".£ 

„  ...  ”*an  1  Apeetnufl,  the  Libyan,  train  a 

rather  than  dlumine  spiall  army  of  Libyan  parrots  to  utter 

.  Hitchcock  s  handy  these  words:  “Apsethus  is  a  god!  Apse- 

»uid  be  preferable  to  thus  is  a  god!”  The  same  anecdote  is 

i  chase.  :  mid  of  Apolloniua  of  Tyana,  a  peripatetic 

fight  if  we  have  ac-  Pl>'lo*optaer,  born  at  Tyana,  Cappadocia. 

ills  attitude.  There  Greece;  and  Apollonius,  incredible  as  it 


his  attitude.  There 
[should  move  speed- 
i  Charleston  col- 
|r leans  postmaster, 
1  he  moved  with  as 
latch;  but  there  is 
Inerally  speaking, 
haste.  In  North 
e‘  is  a  Judge- 
)  attended  to  as 
Alabama  the 
r  has  occupied 
holding  on 
pleasure  in  de- 
psal  to  confirm 
instances  of 
[great  mass  of 
|ceholders  are 
fb-and  unless 
usher  in  -  a 
:  they  will 
If  their  class. 
JpK  will  sup- 
|at  they  are 
’  s  of  fairly 
lough  at  the 


t  Mr.  Taft 
L  being 
i  yearn- 
|h  a  purely 


P  Not  1 


ling. 1,0  popu 
kdlal  leglsla- 
ajo  as  the 

I  been 
lism. 


flLES, 

Profane 

{.  , 

J  The  argu 
|s  are  all  In 
l  clown,  it 

|y.  and  that 
id." 

s  Court. 

I  Allow  me, 
|74".  for  the 
|u  choose  to 
.ix  be  thrice 
|the  whalers 
r  to ,  lower 
b  Ahab  that 
Istorles  are, 
lorn  of  sea- 
1  and  fourth 

leu  lent  sen- 
Iklpper,  let 
■d  friends 
[  H^’.e  and 

fgun  with 
h.  There 
lertone  of 


niay  seem  to-day,  was  for  a  hundred  years 
and  during  the  Middle  Ages  the  storm 
centre  of  fierce  theological  disoussions. 

A  slender  book  entitled  “Appolonius  of 
Tyana:  a  Study  of  His  Life  and  Times,” 
by  F.  W.  Groves  Campbell,  with  an  intro¬ 
duction  by  ErneBt  Oldmeadow,  has  ap¬ 
peared  both  in  London  and  New  York. 

is,  as  the  proface  says— the  meatiest 
part  of  the  volume— a  tentative  essay,  for 
it  is  doubtful  if  the  publio  can  be  seduced 
ipto  reading  at  length  about  this  pythago- 
rean  and  antiohrist.  One  hundred  years 
ago,  writes  Mr.  Oldmeadow,  Edward  Ber¬ 
wick,  vicar  of  Leixlip  in  County  Kildare, 

,  Iceland,  published  the  first  English  ver¬ 
sion  of  the  “Life  of  Apollonius  of  Tyana,” 
by  Flavius  Philosfcratus,  the  sophist  of 
Lemnos.  This  book  has  vanished;  money 
cannot  conjure  it  into  the  hands  of  deal¬ 
ers  or  bibliophiles.  Yet,  continues  our  I 
oritic,  Baur,  Zeller,  Cardinal  Newman,  J.  I 
A.  Froude,  Chassang,  have  discussed  Apol¬ 
lonius.  Old  Burton  quoted  Philostratus 
and  Keats  read  this  quotation,  for  it  is  a 
footnote  to  his  “Lamia.”  Sweden borgians 
and  theosophiets  have  claimed  the  philoso¬ 
pher.  In  the  seventeenth  century  Charles 
Blount  translated  the  two  first  books  of 
Philostratus,  and  a  terrible  religious  row 
ensued.  Bossuet  described  Apollonius  as 
a  magician  in  league  with  the  devil;  the 
Blount  book  brought  dismay  to  those  of 
little  faith.  The  Tyanean  was  born  dur¬ 
ing  the  same  lustrum  as  Jesus  Christ 
(Mr.  Oldmeadow  confidently  assures  us'  in 
a  footnote  that  “everybody  knows  the 
current  computation  of  the  beginning  of 
the  Christian  era  is  incorrect,  and  the  first 
year  of  our  Lord  ought  to  be  dated  four 
or  five  years  earlier.”  Perhaps,  he  con¬ 
cludes,  the  birth  dates  of  the  two  prophets 
coinoide);  both  were  of  miraouloiis  birth, 
that  is,  both  sprang  from  a  god  and  a 
human  mother;  the  lives  of  both  were 
devoted  to  humanity.  Blount  caught  it 
hot  and  heavy  for  his  temerity.  In  1098 
he  committed  suicide  because  he  could 
not  marry  his  deceased  wife’s  sister— a 
singular  reason,  indeed,  though  the  church 
people  put  his  death  down  to  his  atheism. 

Philostratus  wrote  his  “Life  of  Apol¬ 
lonius”  as  a  counterblast  to  the  Christian 
Gospels.  This  was  in  the  year  A.  D.  216. 

In  305  Hierocles,  proconsul  ofj  Alexandria’ 
“published  a  critical  examination  of 
Christianity  in  which  he  opposed  the 
Apollonian  to  the  Christian  miracles.” 
The  work  is  lost,  but  soholars  kn.ow  of  it 
through  the  reply  to  its  sophistries  by 
Eusebius  and  Lactantius.  Arnobius  and 
St.  Jprome,  Bishop  Sidonius  Apollinaris 
and  St.  John  Chrysostom,  as  well  as  Pho- 
tius  of  Constantinople— in  the  ninth  cen 
tury— all  attacked  Apollonius  and  his 
supposed  translator.  Evidently  the  Cap 
padocian  made  a  profound  impression 
Apollonius  was  what  Augustine  called  an 


“JtisUik 
tually  hj 
•Satan  to 
intellect -- 
Notwithsta) 
struotive 
Philostratus 

believe  Apol 
a  different  m 
with  his  idea 
real  sage,  nei 
worker,  but 
humanity;  a« 
tellectual  powi, 
ences  of  a  pessi 
aristocrat. 


A  f’ons it 

T"  my  Ejhtc 
you  kindly  jnfon., 
of  Section  4  of  Ar 
slitulion  has  be; 

“No  such  law  shall 
on  within  three  . 
or  at;  any  general 
law  or  any  other 
be  voted  for  or  agi 

of  tiie  persistent -c 
•St  al  e  pension  oi*  tl 
can  be  voted  on't 
the  sancjt'l&n  of  t 
ft  iV'agfeed 
amendment  to  Artie! 
tive  to  the  debt,  limi 
fall.  I  am  not.UDm 
amendment  adopt  ed 
words  were  in  Sec 
to  wit,  “or  arty 
stitution,"  and  We.. 
ment1  adopted* in  y. 

changes  the  fact  t 
menfct  to  the  Constit 
and  a  "law "  in  the  sei 
stitution,  and  thfe  'moi 
the  duestfoh  6l  legist 
words  so  eliminated  ■ 
siirjilusage  and  we 
No  one  will  pretend  a 
the  constitutional  am 
mitted  (his  i>il,  and 

guage. quoted ^at  the 
article’  absolutely  pr 
,  under  said -section  be 
constitutional  amend 
year. 

The  Standard  Dictiol 
a  "legislative  en, 
draft  of  a  protti- 
islativo  buoy  f°^ 

If  a  prqposeU  .. 
neither  a  "bill''  no 
branches  or  the 
tlonal  amendment^ 
acted  on  and  voted, 
as  other  bills.  I  imi 
question  fairly  up v 
troller  might  find- 
either  project  impos 
Clinton-' and  ,  other 
appeared  befoVe  tl 
apparently’  'ehtirely* 
question.  -  •  ».*  -  1  , 
Nkw  York;  May.  ^ 

\ 


>od  Wind  1,7  Augustine  called  an 

cymbals;  fPe  *  < l°±  V™**  in  his  own 


Icymbals; 
cr  pause. 

Justatned 
lies— and 
■heard  it 
(wharves 
fin’s  old 
s’le  of  a 
s  of  the 
Inperfect 
|t  as  re- 
.  *74." 

.  p: 

duttc 
ce  In 
o  the 
story 
ipertl- 
edlt 


lily 


iat  the 
of  the 
I 

i  rinted 
the 

atory 


fate, 


|iU£ 


I  ‘Cap'n 
|  Cap'n 
Inhere 
?  8tar- 


(eoently 

*50 1: 

J  we  re- 
r  Pardon 
I  Cenci-al 
fdj1  sent 
‘blank 
|ntryi”’ 

_  Wifi. 
Bhe  State 
polloquy 

J  served 


luted 


fended. 

I'sntiou, 
lot  tl>? 
Iasr. 


life  thpacts  of  Christ  and  His  Apostles -at 
least  Phdostratus  claimed  he  did.  Some 
nineteenth  century  critics  have  ridiculed 
the  translation  of  the  Lemnos  rhetorician 
as  pure  fable.  Cardinal  Newman  so  be¬ 
lieved;  James  Anthony  Froude  called 
Apollonius  a  blackguard  and  an  impostor 
Chassang  speaks  of  him  as  a  Chrysostom 
doubled  by  a  Plotinus  and  a  Porphyrius 
Baur  and  Zeller  held  that  the  -Life'  was 
tendency  writing”;  and  the  Abb6  Freppel 
said  that  Apollonius  was  “a  Don  Quixote 
of  philosophy,  Damis,  his  disciple,  being 
his  Sanoho  Panza."  Marcus  Aurelius 
vowed  a  temple  to  his  honor,  and  Gibbon 
does  not  agree  with  those  who  see  in  the 
biography  of  Philostratus  “a  stroke  of 
offensive  defence”  against  Christianity 
Strangely  enough,  it  was  the  Empress 
Julia  Domna  who  prompted  Philostratus 
to  write  his  Life.” 

Dr  Campbell,  with  Pater  in  his  memory 
comes  dangerously  near  writing  a  rhan- 
sody  about  his  hero.  Mr.  Oldmeadow 
who  is  known  as  a  writer  of  musical 
biographies  and  of  several  success*! 

ofhthe’  ]r  ,,'"J(llcu  on®  man  in  his  ]  1st 
of  the  Apol loman  exegetists,  though 

I  fo  bu  y,Heeakmg'  DOt  a  critical 
to,  but  the  oreator  of  a  more  concrete 

[Apollonius  of  Tyana  than  can  be  found 

iTieDs8aabovi  ‘o0 T?8  °tonyof  Ule autbor- 
ities  above  quoted.  We  refe,-  ,, 

ta  mmFltatl°n  °f  Sa'nt  Anth0"y.'’  by  Gus- 
ve  Flaubert,  in  the  fourth  book  of  which 

after  successfully  wrestling  with  the 

saint  is°disf  Slm;n,^la  the  harassed 
samt  is  dismayed  by  the  entrance  iof 

Apollonius  of  Tyana  a hd  the  dwarf  Damis 
They  are  tangible  humans.  Thu  ds 
oussion  that  follows  is  indicative  „  i 

only  of  Flaubert's  erudil^tw  Z 
Of  his  power  of  projecting  dramatioally 
human  characters  before  the  reader 
His  Apollonius  is  not  only  the  mvthib 

aPct‘oTPThe  "Ut  ^ 
m"0”'  man  »  proud  of ,  his  virgin 

k  ilts  “I!”8  pr°phesyin,f’  of  favor  of 
kings,  emperors  and  satraps,  He  has 

seen  all  countries,  all  life.  He  is  more 
beautiful  than  a  god;  Damis  sings  his 
perfections,  a  kind  of  fluting  chorus 
Anthony  is  aghast  at  the  miracles  at  the 
raising  of  the  dead  to  life,  at  the  casting 
out.  of  evil  spirits,  at  the  resoue  of  the 
|  y°UI>_g  man  Menippiis,  who  escapes  the 

« l  v-‘ 

terrible  nas  made me  intrepid.”  He 
[°r®tPl,d  ‘hat  Vespasian  would  be  emperor 

MKT  ““  -* “» 

riZh  ^phe,IIB.AP"lloniu8  witnessed  the 
death  +°r  Domitian,  who  was  at  Rome 
\es,  at  the  theatre,  in  broad 

Of  Ocfoh  °Vhe  f?',rteen'h  of  the  kalends 
of  October,  he  suddenly  exclaimed-  Thov 
are  murdering  Ca-sar!'  and  he  added 
every  now  and  then,  He  rolls  on  the 
ground!  Oh,  how  he  struggles!  He  gets 
“P  again;  he  attempts  to  fly;  the  gates  are 
shut.  Ah!  It  is  finished.  He  is  dead!’ 

That  very  day  Titus  Flavius  Domitia- 
nus  was  assassinated,  as  you  aro  aware." 

Apollonius,  so  the  saint  is  assured,  was 
once  persecuted  bythis  same  Domitian 
d«a,TJ?l!!le,POpalaCe.  ^hnessed  the 


Socrates  and 

.To'tiIR  EbjTOR 
much  is  said'  by  w 
great  good  that. is,,  1 
when  the  right  Jo  i 
I  would  likq.to  ask 
subject.  Th-e*.  stat; 
vague  as  to  mea: 
that  >it  will  bo  a 
that  it  A^dll  be  • 
women,  that  wot 
ballot  for  the  sa 
finally  that  it  *vvi 
I  wish  to  ask  in 
fit  to  women  gen 
now  stand  are  d 'st  . 
and  I  cannot, learn 
which  they  could 
A  married  woman 
dispose  of  ,  iti  as 
consent  of  her  h 
transfer  teal.,  est 
whereas  lie  ca 
joins  in  the 
her  support  i 
pay  her  debt* 

gelled  to  pay, 
is  support, 
cannot  clai**. 
couple  separ, 
give  the  wif1 
unless  she 
conduct. 

An  unmar, 
pose  of  proi 
where  and  i 
her  pleasur' 
a  man  en.i 
engage  in  a. 
fitted  or  co| 
wages  or  s 
to  her  emr. 
everywhere 
if  she  is  de< 
ing  may 
insult  or  .. 
ruffian  or  ill 
anno3r  her  t 
once  her  proi 
go  hard  with 
a  murder  a  j 
convict  her, 
of  the  sex. 

"What,  more, 
than  men  hav 
her  purifying 
women  as  liab 
Are  there  not 
bribery  and 
are  men?  Ye* 
more,  for  I  tru 
have  a  sense 
by  men,. 

If  some  lear 
some  real  rea* 
system  for  whi 
some  great  wro 
ing  injustice  w 
I  shall  be  gla 
formed.  No  v 
ing  general itie; 

W" 


and 


.  ,  . ,  rviLiiesseq  tne 

bu-  d«atn  of  the  philosopher;  but  at  the  sixth 
I  Jhour  came  to  life,  saying,'  “It  is  1/ 


Heart lonurles  A 

'rpTh  k  Editor  of 
possible  should  be  1, 
abominable  practice 
1  recollect  one  Ins 
typhoid  fever  in  a  i 
clearly  traced  to  a  “I, 
bay,  where  there  \V 
proximity. 

If  those  of  eplourea 
eat  with  their  minds 
the  “specially  treated* 
New  York.  May  8. 


.4  I 

Stella  oome  people 
Well  OfT.  I  '-it  ; 

,  Bella-  And  some  d' 
well  on. 


APOLLONIUS 


318 

between  hope  and  despair,  not  knowing  whether  he 
would  be  saved  or  perish, —  he  was  too  much  absorbed 
in  the  probable  fate  of  his  master  to  note  with  precision 
the  many  interesting  things  of  the  Appian  Way.1 

On  his  first  day  he  passed  the  former  residence  of 
Aulus  Persius  Flaccus,  a  philosopher  and  a  stoic,  and  a 
friend  of  Apollonius.2  On  the  third  day  he  arrived  at 
Dicaearchia  where  he  heard  that  there  had  been  a 
violent  storm  at  sea,  in  which  many  vessels  were  lost 
and  many  driven  to  the  Sicilian  straits.  When  he 
heard  this  he  understood  why  Apollonius  advised  him 
to  make  his  journey  on  foot. 

We  will  now  approach  the  tribunal  where  Apollonius 
was  to  make  his  defense.  Whilst  on  his  way  he  asked 
the  officer  of  the  court  who  conducted  him,  where 
he  was  taking  him,  who  replied,  “  To  the  tribunal.” 
“  Then,”  said  he,  “  against  whom  am  I  to  plead  ?  ” 
“Against  your  accuser,”  returned  the  officer,  “and 
afterward  the  emperor  will  give  sentence.”  “  But 
who,”  said  he,  “  will  judge  between  the  emperor  and 
me,  for  I  will  demonstrate  the  injury  he  is  doing  to 
philosophy.”  “And  what  cares  the  emperor  whether 
or  not  he  injures  philosophy  ?  ”  “  And  what  cares  phi¬ 
losophy,”  returned  Apollonius,  “  if  in  the  practice  of  it 
the  emperor  smarts  under  the  lashes  it  inflicts  ?  And 
yet,”  continued  he,  “it  is  of  infinite  consequence  to 
philosophy  and  to  the  emperor  that  he  governs  with 
prudence  and  discretion.”  These  remarks  met  the  full 
approbation  of  the  officer,  who  from  the  first  was  well 

1  Cf.  Histoire  des  grands  chemins  de  V empire  ro??iain,\ya,r  Nicolas  Bergier 
(1728),  2  vols.  4to,  art.  Appian  Way. 

2  Flaccus’s  estate  was  ten  miles  from  Rome;  he  died,  a.  d.  64. 


OF  TYANA. 


319 


disposed  toward  Apollonius,  believing  him  to  be  very 
wise.  He  then  inquired,  “  What  quantity  of  water 
will  you  require  for  your  defense,1  a  circumstance 
necessary  to  be  known  before  you  adjust  it?”  “If, 
replied  Apollonius,  “  the  emperor  permits  me  to  say  as 
much  as  the  cause  requires,  all  of  the  water  of  the  Tiber 
will  not  be  enough  to  measure  the  time,  but  if  only  as 
much  as  I  wish  to  say,  the  interrogant,  at  his  pleasure, 
may  limit  the  time  to  be  allowed  the  respondent.” 
“  Have  you,  then,”  said  the  officer,  “  cultivated  the  habit 
of  brevity  when  discoursing  ?  ”  “  Silence,”  said  Apol¬ 
lonius,  “  would  be  my  only  argument  were  I  alone  the 
party  on  trial  here.”  “Socrates  tried  silence,”  said  the 
officer,  “and  won  a  judgment  of  death.”  “  He  did  not 
die.  It  was  the  Athenians  who  thought  so.  He  now 
lives,  and  will  always  live  and  plead  his  cause  to  all 
coming  generations.” 

Whilst  they  were  waiting  at  the  door  of  the  tribunal, 
another  officer  came  up  and  said,  “  Tyanean,  you  must 
enter  naked.”  “  What,”  returned  Apollonius,  “is  it  to 
bathe  or  to  plead  my  cause  I  am  come  here  ?  It  is  of 
but  little  use,  I  suppose,  however,  to  raise  questions  of 
either  propriety  or  decency  here ;  obedience  is  the  lex 
non  scripta .”  “What  I  have  said,”  replied  the  officer, 
“  alludes  not  to  your  clothes  but  to  the  emperor’s  order, 
forbidding  your  bringing  with  you  either  amulet,  or 
charm,  or  book,  or  any  writing  whatever.”  “  And  does 
he  also  forbid,”  continued  Apollonius,  “  my  bringing 

1  Allusion  is  here  made  to  the  to  exceed.  The  instrument  was 
clepsydra  (KXs^oSpa),  an  instru-  regulatedby  water  dropping  through 
ment  used  to  measure  time,  which  a  glass.  It  was  of  Assyrian  origin, 
was  usually  fixed  by  stipulation,  and  had  been  adopted  in  Greece  and 
and  which  it  was  never  permitted  Egypt. 


320 


APOLLONIUS 


along  with  me  a  rod  for  the  back  of  those  who  have 
given  him  such  foolish  advice  ?” 

All  the  illustrious  men  of  the  day  attended  the  em¬ 
peror,  who  was  particularly  anxious  to  throw  as  much 
consequence  into  these  trials  as  possible,  and  to  make 
it  appear  that  the  persons  accused  were  concerned  in 
actual  rebellion. 

One  of  the  freedmen  of  Euphrates  stood  beside  the 
accuser  while  Apollonius  pronounced  his  defense.  This 
man  had  been  sent  by  Euphrates  into  Ionia  to  collect 
everything  said  by  the  Tyanean  whilst  there. 

Apollonius  was  ordered  to  plead  to  only  four  counts 
in  the  charges  i1 

Charge  ist.  With  wearing  garments  which  differ 
from  those  of  other  men,  thereby  rendering  yourself 
singular  and  peculiar,  and  attracting  crowds  of  boister¬ 
ous  people  to  the  detriment  of  the  good  order  of  the 
city.  Of  wearing  the  hair  long  and  unsightly,  and  of 
living  as  a  vagrant,  not  in  accord  with  good  society.2 

Charge  2d.  You  allow  and  encourage  men  to  call 
you  a  god.3 


1  This  trial  Echard,  in  his  Eccle¬ 
siastical  History ,  supposes  to  have 
taken  place  in  the  fourteenth  year 
of  Domitian  (a.  d.  96),  under  the 
consulship  of  Asprenas  and  Later- 
anus,  a  little  before  the  second 
persecution  of  the  church,  about 
twenty-five  years  after  the  destruc¬ 
tion  of  Jerusalem.  It  seems  strange 
to  one  who  has  carefully  followed 
the  history  of  this  period,  step  by 
step,  to  hear  historians  speak  of  a 
first  and  second  Christian  persecu¬ 


tion,  when  he  knows  that  there 
were  no  Christians  and  no  perse¬ 
cutions  during  all  this  period. —  Cf. 
Eusebius  in  Hierocles ,  41. 

2  As  is  frequently  stated  by  Philo- 
stratus,  the  immediate  wants  of 
Apollonius  were  satisfied  by  loans 
from  the  temples,  the  great  banking- 
houses  of  that  day,  and  these  loans 
were  paid  from  his  private  estate; 
he  was  by  no  means  a  vagrant. 

3  There  is  one  attestation  (says 
Dr.  Enfield),  among  many  others 


OF  TYANA. 


321 


Charge  jd.  Through  magic  you  predicted  a  plague 
in  Ephesus,  and  by  incantations  turned  it  away.  And 
that  you  practiced  magic  for  mercenary  purposes.1 

Charge  pth .  Charged  with  sacrificing  an  Arcadian 
boy  outside  the  city  walls,  in  the  suburbs,  for  pur¬ 
poses  of  divination  from  the  entrails  if  Nerva  would 
succeed  to  the  throne. 

After  the  accuser  had  settled  upon  these  charges, 
Apollonius  was  permitted  to  answer  for  himself.2 

“  The  cause  at  present  before  us,  O  Emperor,  is  of 
great  moment  to  the  state,  as  involving  the  rights 
of  free  citizens  ;  great  to  you,  O  Emperor,  because  you 
must  not  appear  as  the  prosecutor  of  a  citizen,  nor  as 
the  enemy  even  of  philosophy  without  good  cause, 
under  the  charges,  greater  perhaps  than  those  against 
Socrates  at  Athens,  when  his  accusers  affirmed  that  he 
supported  new  opinions  touching  the  religion  of  the 
state ;  but  they  did  not  call  him  god,  nor  did  they 
think  him  one.  It  has  been  presumptuously  said  that 
I  would  deliver  my  defense  in  anger  and  make  treas¬ 
onable  utterances,  and  consequently  be  put  to  death 
without  any  consideration  of  the  question  of  guilt  or 
innocence  as  charged.  These,  and  many  other  things, 
have  reached  my  ears  ;  but  I  am  here,  in  full  possession 
of  my  faculties,  without  prejudice,  and  without  any  un¬ 
favorable  apprehensions  of  the  results  of  the  hearing 
which  you  are  to  give  my  cause.  It  is  my  privilege 

of  Apollonius’s  great  celebrity,  that  1  Moureceji  disquisitio  de  Magia 
during  his  life-time  he  was  called  a  divinatriv e  et  operatrive  (Francof, 
god,  and  accepted  the  appellation,  1683). 

saying  that  every  good  man  was  2  Vie  d’ Apollonius  de  Tyane ,  par 
honored  by  it.  Legrand  D’Aussy,  vol.  ii.  p.  244. 

41 


322 


APOLLONIUS 


to  be  heard  before  this  tribunal,  and  it  is  your  duty  to 
listen  and  to  pronounce  sentence  on  the  charges,  if  sus¬ 
tained,  according  to  the  voice  of  the  law.  Justice 
requires  of  you  that  you  shall  neither  condemn  me 
without  a  fair  hearing,  nor  carry  to  the  seat  of  judg¬ 
ment  any  prejudice  or  persuasion  of  my  having  com¬ 
mitted  any  evil  against  your  person  or  interests,  unless 
established  by  direct  testimony.  Suppose  your  out¬ 
lying  provinces,  the  Armenians  and  Babylonians,  in 
whom  you  trust,  and  who  have  a  numerous  cavalry, 
legions  of  soldiers  and  archers,  and  a  rich  country, 
should  threaten  your  person  and  your  empire,  you 
would  laugh  at  so  ridiculous  an  effort  to  dethrone  you, 
and  is  it  possible  that  you  distrust  a  poor,  harmless, 
unarmed  philosopher,  arraigned  upon  the  idle  tales  of 
an  Egyptian  sycophant,  of  whose  truth  you  have  re¬ 
ceived  no  intimation  from  Pallas  or  the  gods  ?  This  I 
do  not  understand,  unless  it  is  that  calumny  and  flat¬ 
tery  have  so  prospered  with  some  men  as  to  have  given 
them  power  to  make  you  believe  that  in  things  of 
little  consequence  the  gods  condescend  to  act  as  your 
advisers  ;  but  that  in  matters  wherein  the  great  inter¬ 
ests  of  the  state  and  your  own  individual  security  are 
concerned,  these  same  gods  neither  counsel  you  as  to 
the  persons  you  should  avoid,  nor  as  to  the  way  in 
which  you  should  guard  against  them.  Have  they  per¬ 
suaded  you  to  think  that  calumniators  stand  in  the 
place  of  the  Higis  of  Pallas  and  the  hand  of  Jove  ?  Is 
it  possible,  I  say,  such  men  can  make  you  believe  that 
in  what  concerns  your  own  safety  they  know  more  than 
the  gods  themselves ;  and  that  their  sleeping  and  wak¬ 
ing  is  all  for  your  sake  and  the  love  they  bear  you  ? 


OF  TYANA. 


323 


“  Let  these  men  then  have  the  privilege  of  keeping 
white  horses,  and  of  driving  about  the  Forum  in  splendid 
equipages ;  let  them  eat  off  gold  and  silver,  wear 
golden  sandals,  and  form  alliances  by  marriage  and 
maintain  boys  at  an  enormous  expense,  and  intrigue 
with  married  women  whilst  it  can  be  done  in  secret, 
and  afterward  marry  the  victims  of  their  adulteries 
when  discovered,  and  have  their  iniquitous  acts  com¬ 
mended  as  glorious  deeds,  whilst  a  philosopher,  or  a 
man  of  consular  rank,  of  the  best  character,  if  he  hap¬ 
pens  to  rebuke  such  conduct  and  falls'  into  their  hands, 
is  unjustly  devoted  by  you  to  destruction  because  they 
perfidiously  suggest  it.  If  such  conduct  meets  your 
approbation,  I  should  not  be  surprised  if  at  any  pro¬ 
pitious  moment  these  men  were  to  accuse  you  of  hold¬ 
ing  heretical  opinions  concerning  the  state  and  the 
established  religion. 

“  But  whom  shall  I  invoke  as  my  advocate  in  this 
ordeal?  If  I  invoke  Jupiter,  by  whom  I  know  I  live, 
I  shall  be  called  an  enchanter  and  a  magician.  That 
being  so,  I  will  appeal  to  a  man  whom  common  usage, 
custom,  and  state  proclamations  have  pronounced  dead, 
but  who  still  lives  in  my  affections  and  in  your  memory ; 
I  mean  your  father,  in  whose  eyes  I  was  held  in  the 
same  estimation  as  he  is  in  yours.  He  made  you  em¬ 
peror,  and  I  contributed  largely  in  making  him  one. 
He  shall  be  my  advocate  in  pleading  my  cause,  for  he 
knows  my  affairs  better  than  you  do.  He  came  into 
Egypt  before  he  was  made  emperor,  to  offer  sacrifice 
to  the  gods  of  the  country  and  to  confer  with  me  on 
the  critical  state  of  the  empire.  When  he  met  me  in 
my  long  flowing  hair  and  in  this  dress,  he  made  no 


324 


APOLLONIUS 


inquiries  about  it,  from  an  idea  that  everything  I  did 
was  right.  He  confessed  he  undertook  the  journey  on 
my  account.  He  parted  with  me  after  much  commen¬ 
dation,  and  said  he  had  communicated  with  no  other 
person  nor  had  he  heard  from  any  man  what  he  heard 
from  me.  I  communicated  to  him  freely  without  fear 
or  the  possibility  of  reward.  I  encouraged  him  in  his 
purpose  of  aspiring  to  the  diadem  for  the  good  of  Rome, 
though  others,  among  whom  was  the  present  accuser, 
advised  him  to  hesitate,  which,  I  think,  yourself  would 
consider  not  only  unwise  but  a  crime  against  the  state 
at  that  trying  juncture  ;  and  the  men  who  advised  him 
not  to  take  the  reins  of  government  were  they  who 
would  have  deprived  you  of  the  power  of  succeeding 
him.  I  advised  him  to  think  himself  worthy  of  the 
empire,  which  was,  as  it  were,  at  his  door,  and  to  make 
you  his  heir.  He  acknowledged  the  wisdom  of  my 
advice,  which  raised  him  to  the  summit  of  his  wishes 
and  stayed  the  carnage  at  Rome.  It  seems  idle  to 
waste  time  in  refuting  the  charge  of  magic,  for  had 
Vespasian  deemed  me  a  magician  he  would  never  have 
made  me  acquainted  with  his  most  secret  purposes,  nor 
should  I  have  deemed  him,  in  such  an  event,  worthy  of 
the  empire.  I  discoursed  with  him  publicly  in  the 
temples  of  the  gods,  which  are  known  to  be  avoided  by 
the  corporation  of  magicians,  as  being  holy  and  hostile 
to  their  craft,  who,  wrapped  up  in  darkness  and  obscu¬ 
rity,  suffer  not  their  foolish  votaries  to  make  use  of  either 
their  eyes  or  ears.  I  also  talked  with  him  in  private  upon 
the  subject  of  magicians,  never  advocating  their  cause. 

“  He  had  before  coming  into  Egypt  entertained  hopes 
of  gaining  the  empire,  and  after  his  arrival  he  conferred 


OF  TYANA. 


325 


with  me  only  on  the  most  important  subjects,  namely, 
the  laws,  the  right  possession  of  riches,  the  lawful  wor¬ 
ship  of  the  gods,  and  the  advantage  which  they  who 
govern  according  to  justice  are  to  hope  from  such  con¬ 
duct.  To  all  such  subjects,  I  need  not  say,  O  Emperor, 
that  magicians  are  the  greatest  enemies ;  and  why  ? 
because  whenever  the  laws  are  in  force  the  magic  art  is 
impotent.  There  is  one  thing,  O  Emperor  !  you  ought 
to  consider,  which  is,  that  all  the  arts  exercised  by  men, 
though  different  in  their  operation  and  effect,  have  but 
one  object,  and  that  is  the  acquisition  of  money,  of 
which  some  bring  in  little,  others  much,  and  there  are 
others  which  only  furnish  a  bare  subsistence.  This  is 
not  only  true  of  the  servile  but  of  the  liberal  arts.  I 
call  the  liberal  arts,  poetry,  music,  astronomy,  logic, 
and  oratory  as  practiced  in  the  Forum  by  sophists  and 
rhetoricians.  The  arts  allied  to  the  liberal  ones  are 
painting,  carving,  sculpture,  pilotage,  and  agriculture. 
There  are  arts  which  are  not  much  inferior  to  what  are 
called  the  liberal.  There  is  also  an  art,  O  Emperor, 
that  does  not  appertain  to  true  wisdom,  and  is  only 
becoming  the  practice  of  vain  quacks  and  mountebanks, 
which  ought  not  to  be  confounded  with  the  art  of 
divination  :  an  art,  if  true,  most  highly  to  be  prized, 
and  yet  I  am  at  a  loss  whether  to  call  it  an  art  or  not. 
Magicians,  I  affirm,  are  pseudo-sophists,  and  I  attribute 
entirely  to  the  heated  imaginations  of  their  duped  vota¬ 
ries  the  powers  they  possess  of  making  that  which  is, 
appear  as  if  it  were  not,  and  that  which  is  not  as  if  it 
were.  The  truth  is,,  the  whole  art  lies  in  the  deluded 
fancies  of  the  spectators.  They  who  practice  it  fre¬ 
quently  amass  great  wealth.  But  of  what  wealth,  O 


326 


APOLLONIUS 


Emperor,  have  you  discovered  me  possessed  ?  It  is 
certainly  not  on  account  of  my  acquired  wealth  that  I 
can  be  charged  with  magic.  And  a  letter  from  your 
father  ought  to  be  sufficient  to  disabuse  your  mind  of 
any  erroneous  ideas  entertained  upon  this  point 

“  ‘  The  Emperor  Vespasian  to  the  Philosopher  Apollonius  : 

“  ‘  Greeting — If  all  men,  Apollonius,  as  well  as  you, 
would  but  cultivate  philosophy,  philosophy  and  pov¬ 
erty  would  flourish  and  be  happy.  The  former  would 
then  be  above  corruption,  and  the  latter  respected. 
Farewell/ 

“This  is  the  defense  your  father  set  up  for  me,  in 
which  he  ascribed  to  me  a  philosophy  incorruptible 
and  a  voluntary  poverty.  From  my  very  youth  I 
despised  riches.  The  fortune  I  derived  from  my  father, 
which  was  considerable,  I  gave  to  my  brothers,  friends, 
and  indigent  relations,  reserving  only  enough  for  the 
plainest  necessities  of  life,  having  learned  in  my  youth 
the  virtue  of  living  on  little.  For  the  truth  of  these 
statements  I  appeal  to  the  Egyptian  himself,  the  pres¬ 
ent  accuser.  And  thus  we  think,  O  Emperor,  that  the 
charge  of  criminal  conduct  and  wicked  counsels  in  the 
practice  of  magic  for  mercenary  purpose  must  fail,  for 
none  have  been  proven,  nor  do  existing  facts  sustain 
the  accusation.  I  have  merely  referred  to  this  count 
in  the  charges  against  me  to  show  that  the  framer  of 
the  charges  was  misinformed  as  to  facts,  or  prejudiced 
in  judgment ;  and  if  misinformed  or  prejudiced  in  this, 
why  not  in  all  ?  ” 


OF  TYANA. 


327 


Apollonius  then  took  up  the  counts  in  their  order : 
first,  as  to  peculiarity  of  dress ;  then  his  long  hair, — 
charges  which  he  deemed  made  without  seriousness, 
and  upon  which  no  free  Roman  citizen  should  be  called 
to  plead  before  this  tribunal.  And  then,  as  to  permit¬ 
ting  men  to  worship  him  as  a  god.  Upon  this  count 
he  said :  “  Before  an  accusation  of  this  kind  should  be 
made,  I  think  it  would  be  first  right  to  mention  the 
subjects  of  my  disputation,  and  next,  the  wonderful 
things  either  said  or  done  that  could  have  prevailed  on 
men  to  worship  me.  I  never  declared  to  the  Greeks 
either  from  what  body  my  soul  has  migrated,  or  into 
what  it  is  to  migrate.  I  never  spread  abroad  such  an 
opinion  of  myself,  nor  went  about  publishing  oracles 
and  predictions  in  my  favor,  like  other  itinerant  fana¬ 
tics.  I  never  knew  any  city  making  proclamation  of 
offering  sacrifice  to  Apollonius ;  yet  I  have  benefited  as 
many  as  stood  in  need  of  assistance,  and  many  there 
have  been  who  required  it, —  in  curing  the  sick,  in  pro¬ 
moting  a  stricter  observance  of  religious  ceremonies, 
and  in  checking  oppression  by  advising  a  greater 
energy  to  the  laws.  And  the  only  reward  I  have 
received  for  all  this  was  the  reformation  effected 
thereby.  If,  then,  they  considered  me  a  god,  it  is  to 
you,  O  Emperor,  that  the  error  proved  a  service  ;  for, 
under  delusion,  they  would  have  listened  more  will¬ 
ingly  to  any  advice  of  mine,  and  would  have  been 
more  obedient  to  the  laws,  through  fear  of  displeasing 
the  gods.  But  the  truth  is,  they  never  formed  any 
such  opinion  of  me ;  they  conceived,  and  rightly  too, 
that  men  had  some  degree  of  affinity  with  a  deity,  in 


328 


APOLLONIUS 


virtue  of  which  all  creatures  know  a  god,  and  can  rea¬ 
son  philosophically  of  their  own  nature,  and  how  far  it 
is  participant  of  the  divine.  Our  virtues  descend  from 
the  gods,  and  consequently  those  who  are  most  en¬ 
dowed  with  virtue  most  resemble  them.  I  will  not 
call  the  Athenians  the  authors  of  this  sentiment,  on 
account  of  their  being  the  first  who  gave  men  the  title 
of  ‘Just’  and  ‘Olympian,’  and  other  like  appella¬ 
tions,  which  seem  to  include  something  more  divine 
than  is  befitting  mortals;  but  I  will  call  the  Pythian 
Apollo  himself  the  author  of  it,  as  appears  from  what 
I  am  about  to  say :  Lycurgus  of  Sparta  visited  the 
temple  of  Apollo  after  delivering  to  his  countrymen 
the  code  of  laws  and  statutes  on  which  their  city  was 
founded.  Apollo  addressed  him  on  entering  under 
the  title  and  style  of  a  god  on  account  of  his  great 
virtues.  No  process  of  any  kind  was  issued  against 
Lycurgus  for  this,  nor  did  he  incur  any  danger  with 
the  Lacedaemonians  either  for  having  aspired  to  im¬ 
mortality,  or  for  not  having  corrected  the  Pythian  god 
in  his  mode  of  salutation.  Therefore,  O  Emperor,  I 
cannot  conceive  how  I  may  be  found  guilty  of  blas¬ 
phemy  in  not  rebuking  the  people,  even  had  they 
attributed  to  me,  which  they  did  not,  godlike  qualities, 
seeing  that  Lycurgus,  a  much  greater  offender,  not  only 
went  unpunished,  but  was  highly  commended  thereby. 

“  Now  as  to  the  charge  of  having  restored  health  to 
Ephesus,  let  my  accuser  bring  it  forward  in  the  way 
most  fitting  his  purpose ;  let  him,  if  he  pleases,  urge  it 
in  the  following  manner :  ‘  The  Scythians  and  Celtae, 
who  dwelt  not  far  from  the  Danube  and  Rhine,  have  a 
town  belonging  to  them  not  much  inferior  to  Ephesus 


OF  TYANA. 


329 


in  Ionia.  This  town  is  the  bulwark  to  the  barbarians, 
your  enemies.  A  plague  was  on  the  point  of  destroy¬ 
ing  it,  and  Apollonius  saved  it.’  Now  in  a  case  like 
this  it  might  be  said  that  it  was  not  necessary  to  assist 
the  barbarians  or  to  restore  them  to  health,  on  account 
of  being  implacable  enemies  of  the  realm,  yet  it  was 
nevertheless  humane  to  do  so.  But  who,  O  Emperor, 
will  pretend  to  say  that  it  was  not  right  to  deliver  loyal 
Ephesians  from  the  plague  ?  They  have  a  city  rich  in 
literary  labors  of  its  philosophers  and  rhetoricians,  and 
its  reputation  is  based  not  so  much  upon  the  strength 
of  its  cavalry  as  by  the  number  of  its  citizens  devoted 
to  science.  Do  you  think  there  is  any  wise  man  v/ho 
would  not  take  great  pains  to  save  a  city  like  this  ? 
Let  me  call  to  mind  Democritus,  who  delivered  the 
people  of  Abdera  from  a  plague ;  and  Sophocles,  the 
Athenian,  who  appeased  the  winds  when  blowing 
louder  and  more  threatening  than  usual;  or,  if  it  be 
remembered,  how  Empedocles  checked  the  fury  of  a 
cloud  when  ready  to  burst  over  Agrigentum. 

“  But  I  see  the  accuser  looking  at  me  ;  you  see  it  also, 
O  Emperor !  He  says  I  am  accused,  not  for  having 
delivered  the  Ephesians  from  a  plague,  but  for  having 
foretold  that  it  would  attack  them.  This  foreknowledge 
he  thinks  is  more  than  human,  and  partakes  of  the 
marvelous ;  and  he  is  of  opinion  I  could  never  have 
arrived  at  its  discovery  without  being  either  a  magician 
or  through  the  aid  of  a  demon.1  What  will  Socrates  say 

1  Origen,  who  wrote,  A.  D.  260 ;  ment  of  Alexandria,  A.  D.  260 ;  and 
Jerome,  A.  d.  400;  Lactantius,  A.  d.  Eusebius,  all  believed  in  demons. 
320  ;  Theophilus  of  Antioch,  a.  d.  — A  Short  History  of  the  Bible 
210;  Tertullian,  3d  century;  Cle-  (Keeler),  p.  59. 

42 


330 


APOLLONIUS 


here  ?  What  will  Thales  and  Anaxagoras,  of  whom  the 
one  predicted  a  great  plenty  of  olives,  and  the  other  a 
great  variety  of  celestial  phenomena,  say  ?  Was  it  the 
magic  art  that  they  made  use  of  to  utter  these  predictions  ? 
True,  they  were  brought  before  the  tribunals,  but  under 
very  different  charges  from  those  preferred  against  me;  it 
was  never  insinuated  that  they  were  magicians  or  fore¬ 
told  events ;  such  a  charge  would  have  been  ridiculous 
to  bring  against  wise  men  of  Thessaly,  where  old 
women  are  under  the  evil  report  of  drawing  the  moon 
down  from  heaven,  yet  no  more  absurd  than  is  the 
attitude  of  the  present  case.  But  you  will  ask,  perhaps, 
how  have  I  foreseen  the  extraordinary  phenomenon 
which  happened  at  Ephesus  ?  You  heard  my  accuser 
speak  to  that  point;  he  said  I  did  not  live  after  the 
manner  of  other  men,  which  was  noticed  by  me  in  the 
exordium  of  my  defense ;  when  allowed,  I  used  a  par¬ 
ticular  kind  of  food  that  was  more  agreeable  to  me  than 
the  nicest  delicacies  of  Sybaris.  This  is  the  kind  of 
living  which  acts  upon  me  as  an  occult  cause,  and  keeps 
my  senses  unimpaired,  with  nothing  to  obscure  them, 
for  which  reason  I  have  a  perception,1  or  as  it  were  in 
the  speculum  of  a  mirror,  of  things  that  are  and  pro¬ 
phetically  of  things  that  are  to  be.  A  wise  man  will 
not  wait  until  the  earth  sends  forth  vapor,  or  the 
atmosphere  is  infected,  if  the  evil  comes  from  above  ;  but 
he  will  perceive  that  such  things  are  at  hand,  not  so  soon 
as  the  gods  yet  sooner  than  the  generality  of  men.  The 
gods  see  what  is  to  come,  men  what  is  come,  and  wise 
men  what  is  coming.  As  to  what  respects  the  causes 
of  the  plague,  inquire  of  me,  O  Emperor,  in  private,  for 

1  Demonologie ,  ou  traite  des  demons  et sorciers  (Tourcing,  1752). 


OF  TYANA. 


331 


they  are  too  deep  to  be  divulged.  The  way  in  which 
I  live  is  the  only  thing  which  gives  that  subtlety  to  the 
senses,  or,  more  properly  speaking,  that  energy  which  is 
fit  for  producing  great  and  wonderful  effects.  The  truth 
of  what  I  say  may  be  collected  from  many  things,  but 
particularly  from  what  occurred  at  Ephesus,  during  the 
plague.1 

“The  statue  erected  for  me  at  Ephesus  to  Hercules 
Averruncus  is  a  proof  of  whose  assistance  I  implored 
on  the  occasion.  To  him  I  offered  my  prayers,  whose 
wisdom  and  courage  of  old  delivered  Elis  from  a  plague, 
and  at  the  time  he  turned  the  course  of  a  river  into  that 
province  which  swept  away  all  its  pestilential  vapors, 
in  the  reign  of  the  king  Augeas.  Will  any  man,  think 
you,  O  Emperor,  who  wishes  to  pass  for  a  magician, 
ascribe  to  a  god  what  he  has  performed  himself  ?  Did 
you  ever  hear  of  a  magician  ascribing  glory  to  Hercules  ? 
Did  any  one  charge  Epimenides  with  magic,  who  was 
sent  for  by  the  Athenians  from  Crete  to  stay  a  plague 
in  Athens ;  his  expiations  were  successful  and  he  would 
receive  no  other  reward  for  his  services  than  a  treaty 
of  alliance  between  the  Cnossii  and  the  Athenians.2 

“  But  seeing  you  wish  me  to  speak  on  the  subject  of 

\ 

the  sacrifice,  which  I  suppose  is  signified  by  the  motion 


1  St.  Jerome  and  Justin  Martyr 
assign  no  other  reason  for  all  this 
wonderful  operation  than  the  knowl¬ 
edge  he  had  of  nature,  and  absolve 
him  from  all  charge  of  magic.  Je¬ 
rome  says, “Apollonius,  sive magus, 
ut  vulgus  loquitur,  sive  Philoso- 
phus  et  Pythagorici  tradunt.”  Jus¬ 
tin  says,  “  Apollonius  ut  vir  natur- 
alium  potentiarum  et  dissensionum 


atque  consensionum  earum  peritus, 
ex  hac  scientia  mira  faciebat  non 
authoritate  divina;  hanc  ob  rem  in 
omnibus  indiguit  assumptione  ido- 
nearum  materiarum  quse  cum  adju- 
varent  ad  id  perficiendum  quod 
efficiebatur.” 

2  Herodotus ,  v.  71 ;  Thucydides, 
i.  126;  Diogenes  Laer .,  i.  109;  also 
Suidas  and  Pausanias. 


332 


A  POLL  ON  I  US 


of  your  hand,  listen  to  what  is  the  ingenuous  truth. 
Though  anxious  to  do  all  I  can  for  the  good  of  mortals, 
I  never  sacrificed  for  them,  nor  do  I  mean  to  do  it.  I 
shall  have  nothing  to  do  with  sacrifices  where  blood  is 
shed,  or  to  offer  up  any  vows  with  the  sacrificing  knife 
in  view,  or  with  anything  you  call  a  sacrifice ;  and  I 
appeal  to  the  preaching  and  practice  of  my  entire  life 
to  brand  this  accusation  false.  I  am  no  Scythian,  O 
Emperor,  nor  one  sprung  from  inhospitable  soil.  Far 
from  adopting  the  religious  ceremonies  of  the  Massa- 
getse  or  Tauri,  I  have  caused  them  to  cease  from  their 
bloody  sacrifices,  and  blamed  their  folly  in  many  dis¬ 
courses  had  with  them  on  the  subject  of  divination, 
and  in  what  it  may  be  considered  as  efficient  and  in 
what  not.  Can  I,  therefore,  under  such  a  formula,  be 
suspected  of  staining  my  hands  in  blood,  or  in  handling 
the  entrails  of  victims,  the  bare  mention  of  which  is 
forbidden  and  excites  horror  in  me  ?  But,  setting  aside 
the  disgust  excited  in  me  at  the  recital  of  such  sacrifices, 
let  my  accuser  reflect  on  the  method  of  the  charges 
made ;  he  has  acquitted  me  himself  by  implication  in 
their  structure.  He  charges  me  with  having  foretold 
the  plague  at  Ephesus,  without  having  recourse  to  any 
sacrifice,  and  now  why  does  he  so  inconsistently  charge 
me  with  making  bloody  sacrifice  to  foretell  what  might 
have  been  foretold  without  them  ?  If  I  am  called  upon 
to  answer  for  Nerva  and  his  friends,  and  for  whom  this 
immolation  is  said  to  have  been  offered,  I  can  only  repeat 
what  I  said  before  when  accused  by  you.  I  look  on 
Nerva  as  fit  for  the  discharge  of  any  office  and  worthy 
of  all  praise,  but  ill-calculated  for  the  execution  of  any 
enterprise.  His  body  is  so  enfeebled  by  disease  as  to 


OF  TYANA. 


333 


render  him  scarcely  able  to  attend  to  domestic  affairs. 
Who  can  think  that  Nerva  would  aim  at  sovereign 
power,  who  would  be  content  to  be  able  to  personally 
superintend  the  management  of  his  own  family  ?  Or 
that  he  should  confer  with  me  on  a  subject  of  so  much 
moment  ?  Orfitus  and  Rufus  are  men  of  integrity  and 
moderation,  and  peaceable  so  far  as  I  know  them.  But 
it  is  said  they  are  suspected  of  aspiring  to  the  empire ; 
I  know  not  if  the  mistake  is  not  as  great  in  their  case 
as  in  that  of  Nerva;  may  be,  greater.  But  he  who  has 
summoned  me  here  to  trial  ought  to  show  how  I 
have,  or  at  least  how  I  possibly  might  have,  given 
assistance  to  innovators  and  ambitious  aspirants  for 
empire.  My  prosecutor  does  not  charge  me  with  hav¬ 
ing  received  money  from  them,  or  in  having  been 
bribed  into  joining  their  party.  But  it  may  be  said  I 
have  great  claims  on  them,  and  on  that  account  put  off 
the  day  of  retribution  to  that  time  in  which  it  might  be 
supposed  they  would  be  masters  of  the  government, 
when  I  might  demand  much  and  obtain  more.  But 
how  can  this  be  proved  ?  Call  to  mind,  O  Emperor, 
yourself  and  your  predecessors ;  I  mean  your  brother, 
your  father,  and  likewise  Nero,  while  they  governed 
the  empire.  Under  them  I  lived  in  some  degree  of 
celebrity,  even  before  my  journey  into  India,  under 
Tiberius.  During  the  space  of  eight  and  thirty  years, 
which  is  the  time  elapsed  since,  I  never  frequented  the 
doors  of  emperors,  save  those  of  your  father  in  Egypt, 
but  he  was  not  yet  emperor,  nor  have  I  ever  conde¬ 
scended  to  anything  humiliating  in  complimenting  kings, 
or  even  people  for  the  sake  of  kings.  I  never  boasted 
of  the  letters  written  me  by  kings,  nor  of  those  I  wrote 


334 


APOLLONIUS 


to  them ;  nor  did  I  once  deviate  from  the  respect  due 
to  myself,  by  a  mean  flattery  of  kings  for  what  they 
had  to  bestow.  And  yet  your  father  and  brother  were 
gracious  to  seek  counsel  of  me  and  to  desire  to  retain 
me  in  such  position  near  them  during  their  reign. 

“  It  is  asked  of  me,  under  the  charge  of  vagrancy,  do  I 
enroll  myself  with  the  rich  or  poor  ?  After  duly  consid¬ 
ering  the  question,  I  answer,  among  the  rich.  I  want 
nothing,  and  this  is  worth  all  the  wealth  of  Lydia  and 
Pactolus.  Mine  is  the  wealth  of  contentment.  c0  ao<po< ; 
iv  aoTc 5  rcepL^ipsi  tsv  odol av.  But  there  are  other  kinds 
and  sources  of  wealth,  as  that  of  the  philosopher 
Euphrates,  my  accuser ;  he  holds  his  philosophical 
disputations  at  the  tables  of  the  money-changers, 
where  he  not  only  appears  in  the  character  of  a  philoso¬ 
pher,  but  as  a  merchant,  a  retailer,  a  publican,  and  a 
usurer ;  in  short,  he  is  all  things  to  all,  a  seller  and  yet 
to  be  sold.  He  has  nailed  himself  to  the  doors  of  the 
great,  and  spends  more  time  in  dangling  after  them  than 
their  porters ;  he  is  like  the  dog  in  the  adage,  ‘  always 
hungry  and  always  empty/  He  hoards  all  his  wealth, 
and  cultivates  a  malicious  tongue,  which,  were  it  to  have 
its  deserts,  would  be  cut  out  of  his  head.  Malicious 
lying  was  heretofore  a  misdemeanor,  but  under  a 
recent  statute  of  the  prosecutor  is  made  perjury. 

“  But  to  you,  O  Emperor,  I  resign  Euphrates ;  if  you 
are  not  very  much  enamored  of  flatterers,  you  will  find 
him  much  worse  than  I  have  described  him. 

“  My  accuser,  O  Emperor,  has  told  you  a  melancholy 
tale  of  my  cutting  an  Arcadian  boy  in  pieces,  and 
though  he  has  told  you,  I  know  not  yet  whether  he 
says  it  happened  by  night  or  in  a  dream.  This  boy, 


OF  TYANA . 


335 


he  adds,  was  of  a  good  family,  and  handsome,  as 
Arcadians  generally  are,  whose  good  looks  are  not 
affected  by  meanness  of  their  attire.  This  youth  I  am 
accused  of  killing  whilst  in  the  act  of  supplicating  me 
with  tears  for  his  life ;  and  at  the  time  when  my  hands 
were  stained  with  his  blood,  I  am  accused  of  having 
implored  the  gods  to  reveal  to  me  what  was  to  come  to 
pass.  Thus  far  the  accusation  comes  home  to  myself; 
what  follows  concerns  the  gods,  for  it  is  added  that  they 
heard  my  prayers,  displayed  favorable  signs  in  the 
entrails,  and  put  not  to  death  the  impious  sacrificer. 
Why  is  it  necessary  for  me,  O  Emperor,  to  speak  of 
that  which  cannot  be  heard  without  a  crime  ? 

“And  now  as  to  the  boy  which  I  suspect  is  the  prod¬ 
uct  of  the  imagination  of  my  accuser.  Let  us  inquire 
who  he  is.  For  if  he  was  not  of  an  obscure  family, 
and  of  no  inelegant  appearance,  surely  it  is  time  to  ask 
the  name  of  his  parents  and  family,  and  in  what  town 
in  Arcadia  he  was  educated,  and  from  what  penates  he 
was  dragged  to  be  sacrificed  ?  For,  notwithstanding  my 
accuser’s  ingenuity  in  the  art  of  lying,  he  fails  to  fortify 
his  falsehoods  with  corroborative  testimony,  of  parents, 
or  name,  or  nativity,  or  even  to  surround  them  with  the 
halo  of  probability.  But,  may  be,  the  boy' was  a  slave 
for  whom  this  great  uproar  is  made,  and  for  whom  we 
have  no  name,  no  parentage,  no  city,  no  inheritance. 
Grant  it,  then  we  may  fairly  ask  who  sold  him ;  and 
where  is  the  record  of  the  sale  and  the  purchaser  ?  For 
if  an  Arcadian’s  entrails  are  the  fittest  for  illustrating 
the  power  of  divination,  it  is  probable  that  the  boy  sold 
for  a  good  price.  May  be,  a  special  messenger  was  dis¬ 
patched  to  Peloponnesus  to  bring  him  to  Rome.  There 


336 


APOLLONIUS 


is  no  difficulty  in  buying  Pontic,  or  Lydian,  or  Phry¬ 
gian  slaves,  of  whom  you  may  sometimes  meet  whole 
droves  on  their  way  to  Rome.  But  then  in  every  sale 
the  owner  and  purchaser  must  be  entered ;  why  has  not 
that  record  been  produced  ?  But  again,  the  Arcadians 
do  not,  like  the  people  of  Pontus,  Lydia,  and  Phrygia, 
sell  their  slaves. 

“  But  all  this  rhetoric  is  out  of  character  in  my  de¬ 
fense,  as  out  of  character  with  me.  It  should  be  simply, 
*  I  have  shed  no  blood  in  sacrificing ;  I  shed  no  blood 
at  any  time  and  for  no  object.  I  touch  no  blood  nor 
any  altar  sprinkled  with  it.’  This  is  what  Pythagoras 
and  his  disciples,  the  gymnosophists  of  India  and 
Egypt,  have  commanded  and  ordained,  and  I  obey. 
They  who  perform  their  religious  duty  pursuant  to 
their  institutions  do  nothing  displeasing  to  the  gods ; 
they  grow  old  by  means  of  moderate  indulgence,  and 
keep  their  minds  and  bodies  in  sound  health  and  free 
from  disease. 

“  I  think  it  is  not  absurd  to  pray  to  the  gods,  who  are 
themselves  good,  nor  to  make  them  pure  offerings  of 
frankincense.  The  gods  have  expressed  themselves 
pleased  with  such  offerings;  then  why  resort  to  the 
sacrificing  knife  and  the  shedding  of  blood  ?  And  yet 
it  has  been  charged  that  I,  without  respect  to  the  gods 
or  myself,  have  sacrificed  in  a  manner  not  familiar  to 
me,  and  in  which  I  wish  not  to  be  followed  by  any 
mortal. 

“  But  the  time  marked  by  my  accuser  will  acquit 
me.  For  if,  on  the  day  in  which  he  says  I  committed  the 
crime,  I  was  in  the  country,  then  will  I  confess  having 
offered  the  sacrifice.  And  yet  you,  O  Emperor,  con- 


OF  TYANA. 


33  7 


tinue  to  repeat  the  question,  whether  I  was  not  at  that 
time  in  Rome  ?  —  a  thing  not  denied.  You  were  there 
likewise,  most  excellent  Prince,  and,  I  am  sure,  will  not 
allow  of  having  offered  such  a  sacrifice.  My  accuser 
was  there  also,  and  he  will  never  own  to  having  com¬ 
mitted  murder.  Multitudes  of  other  people  were  there 
as  well  as  we,  whom  it  would  be  more  preferable  to 
send  at  once  into  banishment  than  to  expose  them  to 
accusations,  if  being  in  Rome  at  the  time  specified  is 
an  evidence  of  guilt. 

“  What  then,  O  accuser !  did  I  do  that  night  ?  Were 
I  in  your  place,  and  you  in  mine,  I  would  tell  you  in 
answer  to  that  question,  ‘  I  was  laying  indictments 
against  the  worthy,  and  snares  for  the  innocent,  and 
instilling  lies  into  the  mind  of  the  emperor,  for  the  pur¬ 
pose  of  my  honor  and  his  dishonor.’  But  in  my  own 
proper  person  this  is  my  answer,  ‘  Philicus  of  Melos, 
who  studied  philosophy  with  me  for  four  years,  was 
then  very  sick  in  his  bed,  and  on  that  night  I  sat  by 
him  till  he  died.  He  was  endeared  to  me  above  all 
other  men.  Of  the  truth  of  what  I  say,  O  Emperor, 
Telesinus,  the  consul,  will  inform  you,  who  passed  the 
same  night  that  I  did  with  Philicus  in  the  most  friendly 
attentions.  I  appeal  also  to  the  physician  Seleucus  of 
Cyzicus,  who  attended  him,  also  to  Stratocles  of  Sidon, 
from  whom  you  will  be  able  to  learn  the  truth  of  what 
I  say.  Besides,  the  thirty  disciples  of  Philicus  will  all 
testify  the  same.  I  would  wish  also  to  call  as  witnesses 
the  relations  of  Philicus,  but,  in  demanding  this,  you 
might  charge  me  with  an  endeavor  to  put  off  judgment, 
for  they  have  not  yet  returned  from  Melos,  whither  they 
have  gone  to  pay  the  last  sad  duties  to  the  deceased.” 

43 


333 


APOLLONIUS 


(Here  follow  the  depositions  of  the  witnesses.) 

“The  testimony  you  have  heard  proves  clearly  how 
very  consistent  with  truth  the  libel  was  laid,  for  it 
appears  from  the  witnesses  that  I  was  not  in  the 
suburbs,  but  in  the  city ;  not  outside  the  walls,  but 
within  them ;  not  with  Nerva,  but  with  Philicus ;  not 
offering  bloody  sacrifices,  but  prayers  for  the  recovery 
of  my  friend ;  not  occupied  in  the  business  of  state,  but 
in  that  of  philosophy ;  not  planning  insurrection  against 
you,  but  intent  on  saving  the  life  of  a  man  like  myself. 

“  What  then  becomes  of  the  story  of  the  Arcadian 
boy,  what  of  the  story  of  the  victims  and  the  credit 
which  has  been  given  them  ?  For,  supposing  what  is 
false  to  be  adduced  in  a  court  of  justice,  instead  of  that 
which  is  true,  in  what  way,  I  pray  thee,  O  Emperor, 
should  the  absurdity  of  such  a  sacrifice  be  treated  ?  In 
old  times  there  were  soothsayers,  whose  business  was 
to  inspect  the  exta  of  beasts ;  men  versed  in  the  art  and 
of  great  celebrity,  of  whom  Megistias,1  the  Acarnanian, 
Aristander,2  the  Lycian,  and  Silanus,3  the  Ambracian, 
were  the  chief.  The  first  was  soothsayer  to  Leonidas, 
the  king  of  Sparta ;  the  second  to  Alexander  of  Mace- 
don  ;  and  Silanus,  the  third,  to  Cyrus,  at  the  time  he 
was  aspiring  to  the  throne  of  his  brother.  If  anything 
had  been  discovered  by  these  men  in  the  exta  of  human 
victims,  more  luminous,  more  profound,  or  more  explicit 
than  in  those  of  others,  they  would  have  neither 

1  Megistias,  a  soothsayer,  who  der.  It  is  said  Alexander  relied 
told  the  Spartans  that  defended  Ther-  much  on  his  veracity. 

mopylae  that  they  should  all  perish.  3  Silanus,  an  augur  in  the  army 

2  Aristander,  a  celebrated  sooth-  of  the  ten  thousand  Greeks,  at  their 

sayer,  greatly  esteemed  by  Alexan-  return  from  Cynaxa. 


OF  TYANA. 


339 


scruples  nor  difficulty  in  procuring  them ;  for  the  kings 
by  whom  they  were  employed  had  plenty  of  cup¬ 
bearers  and  slaves  at  their  disposal ;  and  they  were 
men  themselves  of  such  character  as  would  not  have 
declined  making  use  of  human  victims,  through  any 
fears  either  of  danger  or  prosecution. 

“  But  I  take  it  for  granted,  the  same  sentiments 
occurred  to  them  as  they  do  to  me,  who  stand  here 
arraigned  for  my  life  for  similar  offenses ;  they  thought 
that  probably  the  exta  of  animals  who  lose  their  lives 
without  having  any  prescience  of  death,  or  sense  about 
what  they  are  to  suffer,  undergo  no  change  whatever. 
But  who  will  believe  that  a  man  who  has  ever  some 
fear  of  death,  though  not  immediate,  can,  whilst  the 
apprehension  of  death  is  present,  and  as  it  were  before 
his  eyes,  give  any  intimation  of  futurity  by  his  exta, 
and  be  a  proper  subject  for  a  sacrifice  ?  To  be  con¬ 
vinced  that  my  conjectures  are  right  and  consonant  to 
the  truth,  I  think,  O  Emperor,  you  should  consider  the 
matter  in  the  following  light.  The  liver,  which  the 
most  skillful  soothsayers  affirm  to  be  the  tripod  of 
divination,  consists  not  of  pure  blood,  for  it  is  the  heart 
which  retains  and  circulates  by  the  veins  the  pure  blood 
through  the  whole  body.  The  gall  which  is  contained  in 
the  liver  is  put  into  motion  by  anger,  and  is  confined 
by  fear  within  the  cavities  of  the  liver.  So  that  the 
gall,  whenever  it  becomes  to  effervesce  in  men  of  warm 
passions,  and  is  not  able  to  be  kept  within  its  own 
proper  vessels,  diffuses  into  the  liver,  by  which  it 
occupies  the  whole  left  region  of  the  entrails  wherein  is 
seated  the  foundation  of  the  art  of  divination.  When  a 
man  is  under  the  influence  of  fear  his  liver  contracts 


340 


APOLLONIUS 


and  darkens  the  light  in  the  left  region.  For  then  the 
purer  part  of  the  blood  withdrawing  itself,  by  means  of 
which  the  liver  is  distended  like  the  spleen,  and  sinking 
by  a  natural  motion  into  the  membrane  inclosing  the 
heart,  swims  upon  the  gross  matter. 

“  Whence  then,  O  Emperor !  the  necessity  of  human 
sacrifices,  if  they  give  no  signs  of  futurity  to  be 
depended  on  ?  But  man’s  own  nature  is  the  true  cause 
of  its  not  giving  such  signs,  he  himself  being  under  the 
fear  of  death.  Brave  men  die  with  anger,  cowards  with 
fear.  Hence  this  art  of  divination,  with  people  not 
wholly  savage,  approves  of  the  sacrificing  of  kids  and 
lambs,  because  of  their  being  harmless  and  not  differing 
from  creatures  entirely  devoid  of  sense.  But  cocks,  and 
swine,  and  bulls,  as  being  of  a  more  generous  nature,  it 
considers  unfit  to  be  used  in  their  sacred  rites. 

“  I  see,  O  Emperor !  that  my  adversary  is  not 
pleased  with  my  making  you  a  more  enlightened 
hearer  than  himself,  nor  with  the  attention  you  seem  to 
pay  to  my  defense.  If  in  any  point  I  have  explained 
myself  in  a  way  not  so  satisfactory  as  I  ought,  I  beg 
you  may  interrogate  me  respecting  it. 

“  I  have  said  what  was  necessary  as  an  answer  to  the 
Egyptian.  But  since  the  calumnies  of  Euphrates  are 
not  to  be  passed  over  in  silence,  you  will  judge,  O 
Emperor !  which  of  us  two  philosophizes  best.  His 
object  is  to  say  everything  false  of  me,  and  mine  not  to 
follow  his  example.  He  fears  you  as  a  slave  fears  his 
master,  and  I  respect  you  as  a  subject  should  his  sov¬ 
ereign.  He  puts  a  sword  into  your  hand  against  me, 
but  I  do  not  arm  you  against  him.  He  makes  my  con¬ 
versations  in  Ionia  the  grounds  of  his  charge  against 


OF  TYANA. 


341 


me,  which  he  says  were  uttered  with  an  evil  mind,  and 
yet  all  I  said  there  regarded  fate  and  necessity.  To 
illustrate  my  discourse  by  examples,  I  sought  in  the  his¬ 
tory  of  princes  for  such  as  were  appropriate,  because  in 
human  affairs  your  rank,  0  Emperor !  is  most  conspic¬ 
uous.  I  reasoned  on  the  force  of  fate,  and  said,  its 
decrees  are  so  unchangeable,  that  if  they  decreed  a 
kingdom  to  one  man,  which  at  the  time  of  making  the 
decree  was  possessed  by  another,  and  that  if  the  reign¬ 
ing  prince  was  even  to  put  to  death  his  appointed 
successor,  to  prevent  his  succeeding  to  the  throne,  I 
said  the  dead  man  would  return  to  life  to  satisfy  the 
decrees  of  fate. 

“  Men,  you  know,  are  sometimes  accustomed  to  talk 
in  figures  and  hyperboles  to  those  who  will  not  believe 
them  when  they  talk  in  reason  and  moderation. 

“  It  is  as  if  I  were  to  speak  in  the  following  language. 
He  whom  the  Fates  destine  to  be  a  carpenter,  will  be 
one  though  his  hands  were  cut  off.  He  whom  they 
appoint  to  win  at  the  Olympic  games,  will  win  even  if 
his  legs  be  broken ;  and  he  whom  they  have  decreed  to 
hit  his  mark,  will  do  it  though  his  eyes  were  put  out. 
The  examples  which  I  adduced  were  taken  from  the 
history  of  kings,  and  those  I  had  in  view  were  Acrisius,1 
Laius,  and  Astyages  the  Mede,2  and  many  others  who 
thought  they  had  taken  the  best  precautions  to  secure 
themselves  in  their  kingdoms.  Of  these  princes,  some 
by  putting  to  death  their  sons,  and  others  their  grand¬ 
sons,  thought  to  give  themselves  security ;  and  yet  they 

1  Acrisius,  the  father  of  Danae,  and  Astyages,  the  grandfather  of 

whose  story  is  well  known.  Cyrus,  whose  stories  are  equally 

2  Laius  was  the  father  of  CEdipus,  well  known. 


342 


APOLLONIUS 


were  all  bereft  of  their  kingdoms  by  those  sons  and 
grandsons,  who  rose  out  of  darkness  by  the  predominant 
power  of  fate. 

“  If  I  were  inclined  to  flatter,  O  Emperor,  I  would 
say  that  your  situation  occurred  strongly  to  me  when 
you  were  besieged  in  this  city  by  Vitellius,  and  the 
temple  of  Jupiter  Capitolinus  was  burnt.  Vitellius 
supposed  everything  would  go  well  with  him  could  he 
have  prevented  your  escape  from  the  capitol,  though 
at  that  time  you  were  young  and  far  from  what  you 
are  at  present.  But  as  the  Fates  decreed  otherwise,  he 
perished  in  the  midst  of  his  projects,  and  you  now  pos¬ 
sess  his  throne.  However,  as  the  song  of  flattery  is 
unpleasing  to  my  ears,  from  its  want  of  due  cadence, 
I  must  break  its  string.  Do  not  believe  my  thoughts 
have  been  engrossed  by  your  affairs  ;  I  have  spoken  only 
of  the  ‘  Fates  and  Necessity/  which  is  what  my  accuser 
has  alleged  against  me.  As  to  the  doctrine  of  necessity, 
most  of  the  gods  themselves  do  not  object  to  it,  and 
even  Jupiter  is  not  displeased  at  hearing  it  mentioned 
by  the  poets,  who,  when  speaking  of  the  affairs  of  Lycia, 
make  him  say : 

‘The  hour  draws  on,  the  destinies  ordain 
My  godlike  son  shall  press  the  Phrygian  plain.’ 


Nor  is  he  angry  with  the  Fates  when  they  deprive  him 
of  that  son.  And  in  other  places  the  poets,  when 
speaking  of  the  abode  of  departed  spirits,  tell  us  that 
Jupiter  appointed  Minos,  Sarpedon’s  brother,  whom  he 
could  not  exempt  from  the  laws  of  destiny,  judge  in 
the  court  of  Pluto,  and  honored  him  with  a  golden 
scepter. 


OF  TYANA. 


343 


“  Why  then,  O  Emperor !  are  you  displeased  with 
this  doctrine, —  a  doctrine  tolerated  by  the  gods  them¬ 
selves,  whose  condition  is  unchangeable,  and  who  punish 
not  with  death  the  poets  on  account  of  it.  We  must 
obey  the  destinies ;  we  must  not  repine  at  the  changes 
and  chances  of  life,  and  must  give  credit  to  Sophocles, 
who  says,  ‘The  gods  alone  are  exempt  from  old  age 
and  death/  and  ‘  Time  in  the  end  is  victorious  over  all 
things  ’ ;  and  in  this  he  expresses  himself  better  than  was 
ever  done  by  mortal.  The  fortune  of  men  is  variable, 
and  their  happiness  only  endureth  for  the  period  of  a  day. 
Neither  he  who  has  my  estate,  nor  the  man  who  has 
the  estate  of  him  who  possesses  mine,  can  be  considered 
as  the  real  possessors.  Taking  this  into  consideration, 
put  a  stop,  O  Emperor!  I  beseech  you,  to  all  banishments 
and  shedding  of  blood.  Use  philosophy  in  everything 
you  like,  for  true  philosophy  frees  the  mind  from 
trouble.  Wipe  the  tears  from  the  eyes  of  men,  whose 
multiplied  groans  resound  from  the  sea,  and  yet  more 
from  the  land,  all  and  every  one  lamenting  what  they 
held  most  dear.  The  evils  resulting  from  hence  are 
more  in  number  than  can  be  counted,  evils  all  to  be 
ascribed  to  the  tongues  of  informers,  who  make  every¬ 
thing  odious  to  you,  and  you,  O  Emperor !  odious  to 
every  one.” 

After  finishing  his  speech,  and  while  the  emperor  was 
engaged  in  settling  a  dispute  between  one  of  his  cities 
and  a  certain  subject  on  the  matter  of  a  will,  Apollonius 
vanished  from  the  court- room.  This  story  of  his  disap¬ 
pearance  from  the  tribunal  is  inexplicable  upon  any 
other  theory  than  that  the  emperor  did  not  desire  to 


344 


APOLLONIUS 


either  convict  or  acquit  him,  and  that  while  he  was 
otherwise  engaged,  it  was  hinted  to  Apollonius  by 
./Elian  his  friend,  that  he  was  no  longer  wanted,  and 
was  at  liberty  to  go  where  he  pleased,  this  being  a 
scheme  to  be  effectually  freed  from  him  ;  and  that  he 
thereupon  left  the  court-room.  Some  say  miraculously  ; 
but  there  is  no  reason  for  such  an  assumption.1  That 
the  tyrant  who  had  been  for  so  many  years  the  terror 
of  Greek  and  barbarian  had  been  but  a  plaything  in 
the  hands  of  Apollonius  has  much  the  appearance  of 
truth.  Accustomed  to  no  language  but  that  of  servile 
adulation,  Domitian  had  been  completely  subdued 
by  the  fearlessly  spoken  truths  of  Apollonius;  for  he 
behaved  entirely  different  from  what  had  been  ex¬ 
pected  of  him.  Whether  it  was  because  he  held  the 
Tyanean  in  such  supreme  contempt  that  he  failed  to 
notice  or  refer  to  him  after  the  trial,  or  that  he  had 
been  humanized  by  his  eloquence,  can  only  be  surmised 
from  the  sequel. 

The  terms  of  friendship  heretofore  existing  between 
Domitian’s  father  and  brother  so  forcibly  laid  before 
him,  the  eloquent  and  logical  method  in  which  Apol¬ 
lonius  consecutively  disposed  of  the  charges  against 
him,  it  has  been  suggested,  dazed  the  emperor,  and, 
being  ashamed  to  convict,  he  allowed  him  to  be  dis¬ 
missed  by  one  of  the  subordinates  of  the  court  rather 
than  receive  an  acquittal  at  the  hands  of  the  emperor. 

The  same  day  Apollonius  appeared  to  Damis  and 
Demetrius  at  Puteoli  (at  least  three  days’  journey  from 
Rome),  as  they  were  conversing  on  the  sea-shore,  their 

1  The  language,  however,  in  the  original  is  YjcpaviSOY] — he  quite  vanished 
away.  In  another  place  it  is  owrqXOe — he  went  away. 


OF  TYANA. 


345 


hearts  filled  with  sorrow,1  and  walked  and  conversed 
with  them ;  but  they  knew  him  not,  and  when  he  dis¬ 
covered  himself  to  them,  he  stretched  out  his  hand, 
asked  them  to  accept  it  and  examine  it,  and  determine 
whether  he  was  merely  an  apparition  or  a  reality,  “for,” 
said  he,  “  if  I  bear  being  touched  you  must  be  persuaded 
that  I  am  alive,  and  that  to  reach  here  I  made  use  of 
neither  the  ram  of  Phryxus  or  the  wings  of  Daedalus.” 
He  then  recounted  to  them  minutely  the  story  of  his 
defense,  that  they  might  relate  every  circumstance  to 
Telesinus,  who  never  ceased  making  inquiries.  When  he 
had  ended  his  account  of  the  trial,  and  recited  his 
summing  up,  not  omitting  one  word,  he  retired  to  the 
house  where  Demetrius  lodged,  washed  his  feet,  gave 
orders  for  refreshments  for  his  companions,  of  which 
they  seemed  to  want,  and  threw  himself  on  the  bed, 
repeated  some  verses  of  Homer  and  went  to  rest,  as  if 
the  present  state  of  affairs  required  no  solicitude  what¬ 
ever. 

Early  in  the  morning  he  informed  his  companions 
that  he  intended  sailing  for  Greece ;  and  finding  a  ship 
ready  to  sail,  they  took  leave  of  Demetrius  and  em¬ 
barked  for  Sicily, —  Syracuse, —  and  afterward  sailed  for 
Peloponnesus,  where  they  arrived  in  the  beginning  of 
autumn,  A.  D.  95.  Apollonius  repaired  at  once  to 

1  While  two  of  his  disciples  to  all  knowledge,”  and  could  open 
(Christ’s)  journeyed  to  Emmaus  all  its  treasure-houses;  and  at  last 
(which  is  from  Jerusalem  about  when  he  discovered  himself  to  them 
three-score  furlongs),  on  the  day  of  he  vanished  out  of  their  sight.  On 
resurrection,  Jesus  overtook  them  another  appearance  he  begged  them 
on  the  way,  but  they  did  not  know  to  examine  his  hands  and  feet,  etc., 
him.  He  conversed  with  them,  and  and  determine  if  he  were  really  a 
they  perceived  that  he  had  the  “  key  ghost. 

44 


346 


APOLLONIUS 


Olympia,  and  discoursed  continually  to  the  people, 
explaining  a  great  variety  of  matters  with  great  wis¬ 
dom.  He  staid  forty  days  at  Olympia,  in  the  temple 
of  Jupiter,  then  went  into  Lebadea  to  converse  with 
Trophonius,  the  son  of  Apollo,  whose  temple  and  cave 
were  there.  He  visited  the  cave  without  the  permis¬ 
sion  of  the  priests  of  the  temple  (they  having  refused 
it);1  and  the  god  was  so  much  pleased  with  the  inter¬ 
view,  that  he  appeared  in  person  to  the  priests,  and 
reprimanded  them  for  their  treatment  of  him.  Various 
rumors  now  spread  concerning  Apollonius,  some  say¬ 
ing  that  he  had  been  burnt  alive,  others  that  he  had 
been  tortured  with  little  hooks,  others  again  that  he 
had  been  cast  into  a  deep  pit  or  drowned  in  a  well. 
But  as  soon  as  his  arrival  was  fully  ascertained,  all 
Greece  flocked  to  see  him  with  more  eagerness  than 
they  ever  did  to  the  Olympic  games.  People  came 
from  Elis  and  Sparta  and  from  Corinth ;  Boeotians  and 
Argives  and  many  persons  of  note  from  Phocis  and 
Thessaly.  And  as  he  wished  to  avoid  all  vain  boast¬ 
ing,  to  the  questions  put  to  him  concerning  his  trial, 
he  said  only,  “  I  pleaded  my  cause  and  came  off  safe.” 

Damis  seeing  that  there  was  but  little  money  for 
further  pursuing  their  travels  told  Apollonius  of  it,  who 
immediately  replied,  “  I  will  remedy  it  to-morrow.” 
Next  day  he  made  application  to  the  treasury  of 
Jupiter  for  a  loan  of  one  thousand  drachmas,  which  the 
priests  immediately  gave  him,  expressing  the  belief 
that  the  god  was  highly  pleased  with  making  this  loan.2 

1  Larcher’s  Notes  on  Herodotus,  Greek  ap ysiov,  by  some  translated 

vol.  ii.  c.  viii.  140  summum  templum,  which  was  a 

2  There  was  a  department  belong-  repository  or  treasury  both  for  the 
ing  to  the  pagan  temples  termed  in  service  of  the  church  and  others 


OF  TYANA. 


347 


He  now  sailed  into  Ionia  with  his  whole  company,  now 
called  Apollonians,  or  followers  of  Apollonius.  He 
discoursed  the  most  part  of  his  time  in  Smyrna  and 
Ephesus,  without,  however,  overlooking  the  smaller 
towns ;  there  was  not  one  in  which  he  was  not  well 
received.  After  the  death  of  Domitian,  which  he  fore¬ 
told,  he  was  invited  by  Nerva  to  visit  Rome;  this  he 
declined  doing ;  he  also  prophesied  the  early  death  of 
Nerva.1  Domitian  was  murdered  by  his  wife  Domitia, 
in  A.  D.  96,  and  thus  perished  the  last  of  the  twelve 
Caesars.  He  was  succeeded  by  Nerva,  and  this  began 
“  the  reign  of  the  stoics,”  the  most  glorious  that  Rome 
has  ever  experienced,  notwithstanding  Renan’s  cowardly 
assault  upon  it.  During  this  short  reign,  however, 
began  a  general  literary  activity.  Tacitus,  who  had 
barely  escaped  the  tyrannous  caprice  of  Domitian,  is 
preparing  his  “Annals  of  the  Roman  Empire”;2  Plu¬ 
tarch,  no  less  fortunate,  is  reading  lectures  at  Rome  on 
the  Lives  of  Eminent  Men ;  Quintilian,  delivering 
discourses  on  rhetoric;  Juvenal,  composing  satires  on 
the  corruption  of  Roman  manners ;  Epictetus,  disser¬ 
tation  on  stoic  philosophy;  and  Josephus,  writing  a 
history  of  his  own  life. 

Nerva  was  succeeded  by  Trajan,  A.  D.  98  ; 3  Adrian, 


who  desired  to  secure  money,  as 
was  done  by  Xenophon,  who  com¬ 
mitted  his  treasures  to  the  custody 
of  the  priests  of  Diana  of  Ephesus ; 
hence  those  epithets  as  given  it  by 
Pollux. —  Archceologia  Grceca,  vol.  i. 
p.  225. 

1  Satires  of  Decimus ;  Junius 
Juvenalis  (W.  Gifford). 

2  Many  of  the  follies  and  cruelties 
of  Domitian  have  been  preserved 


as  monuments  of  his  infamy  in  the 
coins  issued  during  his  reign. —  See 
IJistoire  des  Empereurs  romains 
dipuis  Jules  Cesar  jusqu’a  Postu- 
mus,  avec  toutes  les  medailles  d’’ ar¬ 
gent,  etc.  (J.  B.  Haultin,  Paris, 

1645)* 

3  The  noblest  act  in  the  life  of 
Nerva  was  in  passing  over  all  his 
own  relations  and  personal  friends, 
and  naming  Trajan  as  his  successor. 


343 


APOLLONIUS 


A.  D.  1 17;  Antoninus  Pius,  A.  D.  138;  Marcus  Aurelius, 
A.  D.  161  ;  Commodus,  A.  D.  180  —  all  stoics  under 
whom  Rome  was  prosperous  and  happy.1  Soon  after 
this,  A.  D.  98,  Apollonius  died,  probably  at  Ephesus; 
some  say  that  he  entered  the  temple  of  Minerva  at 
Lindus  (Rhodes)  and  then  disappeared,  others  say  he 
died  at  Crete. 

The  followers  of  Apollonius,  or  Apollonians,  became 
scattered ;  he  continued  to  be  worshiped,  however, 
until  the  fifth  century.  A  temple  was  erected  to  him 
at  Tyana.  There  was  a  vast  amount  of  literature,  the 
product  of  the  Apollonian  period,  more  probably  than 
was  ever  produced  before  during  a  like  period  by  the 
like  number  of  persons.  All  that  we  know  about  it  is, 
that  it  once  existed  and  was  destroyed  during  the 
subsequent  ages. 

Apollonius  was  a  man  of  extensive  reading,  as  his 
familiarity  with  Plato,  Pythagoras,  Livy,  and  Horace 
testifies,  indicated  by  his  frequent  quotations ;  but  his 
favorite  author  was  Homer,  and  his  philosophy  the  dia¬ 
lectic  stoicism  of  Zeno.2  The  life  of  Apollonius  may  be 


the  very  man  most  needed  in  that 
exigency.  And  as  he  mounted  the 
throne  he  gave  to  the  captain  of  the 
guards  the  dagger,  the  symbol  of 
the  office,  with  these  words,  “Take 
this  and  use  it;  if  I  rule  justly,  for 
me;  if  otherwise,  against  me.” 

1  The  Reign  of  the  Stoics  (F.  M. 
Holland),  p.  13,  et  seq. 

2  How  much  the  ethics  of  stoi¬ 
cism,  as  known  in  later  times,  was 
due  to  Zeno,  the  great  master  and 
founder  of  Greek  stoicism,  we  do 


not  know. — See  The  Stoics,  Epicure¬ 
ans,  and  Sceptics  (E.  Zeller,  London, 
1870).  He  came  to  Athens  from 
Cyprus  after  the  conquest  of  Alex¬ 
ander,  and  established  his  school  in 
the  poecile  stoa;  he  was  a  faithful 
and  worthy  successor  of  Socrates 
and  Stilpo. —  Reign  of  the  Stoics 
(Holland,  1879).  “The  true  phi¬ 
losopher,”  said  Zeno,  “is  ever  ready 
to  serve  the  state.” — Zeno  in  Sen¬ 
eca's  Dialogues.  He  also  declared 
“  that  he  did  not  contend  for  his 


OF  TYANA. 


349 


summed  up  entirely  from  the  testimony  of  dissenting  wit¬ 
nesses,  as  follows :  He  was  exposed  to  the  attacks  of 
enemies  although  he  was  engaged  in  doing  good.  He 
went  about  from  place  to  place  while  carrying  out  his 
work  of  reform,  accompanied  by  his  favorite  disciples ; 
and  when  the  hour  of  danger  came,  like  Jesus,  against 
the  advice  of  friends,  he  went  straight  to  Rome  as  Jesus 


own  liberty  —  not  himself  to  live 
free,  but  to  live  among  freemen.” — 
John  Stuart  Mill  on  Liberty,  1874; 
Cato  on  Seneca’s  Epistles .  “  I  am 

human,”  said  he,  “therefore,  no 
man  is  a  stranger.”  Homo  sum: 
humani  nihil  a  me  alienum  puto. 

The  great  idea  of  stoicism,  and  to 
which  it  subordinated  all  things, 
was  love  for  humanity ;  and  no  phi¬ 
losophy  ever  existed  in  which  the 
practice  of  its  disciples  was  more 
consistent  with  their  creed.  They 
held  no  esoteric  views,  they  taught 
publicly ;  and  all  without  restriction, 
who  took  upon  themselves  the  stoic 
name  and  simple  life,  were  regarded 
as  fellows.  Stoicism  accepted, 
but  declared  God  and  immortality 
undemonstrable  assumptions.  And 
it  stripped  morality  of  all  divine 
sanction.  —  Religions  before  Christ 
(Pressens6).  Promulgating  such 
sentiments,  we  can  understand  how 
Apollonius,  three  hundred  years 
removed  from  Zeno,  persisted  in 
refusing  all  participation  in  public 
affairs,  and  yet  sought  with  a  zeal, 
which  scoffed  even  martyrdom,  to 
cement  those  principles  of  humanity 
into  a  republican  form  of  govern¬ 
ment.  The  result  of  the  labors  of 


the  porch  is  recorded  in  the  acts  of 
the  rulers  of  Rome  from  Nerva  to 
Commodus,  all  of  whom  were  stoics. 
But  the  empire  of  this  mild  and 
humane  philosophy  was  doomed  to 
ruin  by  the  sanguinary  Constantine, 
who,  with  sword  in  one  hand  and 
the  gospel  in  the  other,  declared 
himself  commissioned  by  heaven  to 
conquer  and  evangelize  the  world. 
— Ecclesiastical  History  (Eusebius). 
Stoicism  gave  way  before  the  powers 
of  the  church  militant.  And  then 
began  the  reign  of  saints,  a  reign  of 
physical  terror  and  of  mental  dark¬ 
ness.  But  the  stoic  philosophy  did 
not  perish.  In  the  thirteenth  cen¬ 
tury  it  again  began  to  take  root  and 
assert  itself. —  Natural  History  of 
Atheism  (Blackie,  1878).  Chris¬ 
tianity  relaxed  its  intolerance  under 
the  demands  of  advancing  science 
and  free-thought.  The  surviving 
individualism  of  Zeno  and  Socrates 
was  now  silently  but  certainly  press¬ 
ing  the  claims  of  the  philosophy  of 
humanity  into  the  very  ranks  of 
Christianity,  the  forces  of  which  were 
decimated  in  exact  ratio  to  the  dis¬ 
semination  of  light  and  knowledge. — 
Conflict  between  Religion  and  Science 
(Draper).  Christendom  is  just  now 


350 


APOLLONIUS 


did  to  Jerusalem,1  although  Apollonius  had  no  hanker¬ 
ing  for  martyrdom.  He  was  accused  before  Nero  as 
Jesus  is  said  to  have  been  before  Herod.  He  wrought 
miracles  of  mercy,  for  which  he  was  accused.  He  spoke 
to  evil  spirits  with  authority  as  Jesus  did,  and  they 
departed  out  of  their  victims.  In  one  case  a  herd  of 
swine,  in  another  a  statue  falls  overthrown  by  the 
violence  of  the  evil  spirit.  In  Rome  Apollonius  restores 
a  young  girl  of  noble  birth  to  life,  precisely  similar  to 
the  return  to  life  of  the  daughter  of  Jairus.  The  lame, 
the  blind,  and  the  halt  came  in  crowds  to  be  healed. 
He  appeared  after  his  resurrection  to  Damis  and  Deme- 


becoming  to  realize  the  fallacy  of 
“  pastoral  budgets,”  “  papal  bulls,” 
and  the  efficacy  of  a  crucified  Christ, 
and  that  the  scheme  laid  down  for 
us  by  the  great  philosopher  of  Na¬ 
zareth  is  too  narrow  upon  which  to 
found  a  grand  republic  of  humanity. 
—The  Religious  Sentiment (  Brinton ) . 
Two  hundred  years  ago  Charles 
Blount  commenced  the  translation 
and  publication  of  the  Life  of  Apol¬ 
lonius  of  Tyana;  the  religious  senti¬ 
ment  of  that  day  was  inimical  to  it,  and 
it  was  prohibited  and  anathematized. 
Have  two  hundred  years  wrought 
any  change  in  the  religious  sentiment 
of  our  race  ?  •  Has  that  gentle  spirit 
of  forbearance  and  mercy,  which 
characterizes  the  stoic  philosophy 
of  Zeno,  made  any  impress  upon  our 
day  ?  Blackie  ( Natural  History  of 
Atheism )  thinks  it  has.  Louis  Ja- 
colliot  (La  Bible  dans  V Lnde)  thinks 
that  the  infusion  of  liberal  notions 
into  the  religious  sects  of  our  day 
is  a  movement  strongly  impregnated 


with  the  “philosophy  of  stoicism.” 
To  which  a  liberated  universe  re¬ 
sponds — “Amen.” — Revelations  of 
A  ntichrist. 

1  At  Rome  Apollonius  declined 
all  publicity  and  also  to  make  any 
blood  sacrifice  in  the  temple.  But 
Jesus,  on  entering  Jerusalem,  went 
immediately  to  the  temple,  and  as 
he  passed  through  the  crowd,  some 
one  saluted  him,  “Hail,  King  of 
the  Jews!”  at  which  he  became 
tumultuous,  and  asserted  his  kingly 
and  godlike  authority  by  calling  the 
merchants  (who  were  selling  bulls, 
sheep,  and  doves  for  blood  sacri¬ 
fices  under  Levitical  law)  thieves  (a 
den  of  thieves),  and  made  a  scourge 
of  small  cords  and  drove  them  out 
of  the  temple,  and  kicked  over  the 
tables  of  the  money-changers,  and 
assumed  a  kingly  attitude  generally 
after  the  Roman  formula.  He  de¬ 
clared  that  he  would  destroy  the 
temple  and  “build  it  up  in  three 
days,”  which  he  did  not  do. 


OF  TYANA. 


351 


trius.  All  these  are  points  of  resemblance  which  can 
neither  be  accidental  nor  imaginary,  say  a  host  of 
writers.1  That  Apollonius  was  a  great  and  good  man 
can  hardly  be  questioned  ;  the  tribute  paid  him  by  Titus, 
Vespasian,  and  Aurelius  is  a  guarantee.  Even  among 
those  of  the  present  day  most  willing  to  detract  from  his 
character  many  are  forced  to  admit  that  a  certain  pure 
and  true  morality  pervades  the  whole  of  his  system  of 
teaching.  There  is  a  well-established  theory  in  it,  that 
virtue  and  true  piety  is  the  only  foundation  of  happiness. 
Apollonius  was  chaste  and  temperate ;  he  was  actuated 
by  a  noble  desire  to  know,  and  the  still  nobler  desire 
to  communicate  his  knowledge  to  mankind.  He  was 
ingenuous,  learned,  and,  generally  speaking,  there  is 
something  lively  and  original  in  his  language.2  No 
man  ever  lived  who  more  utterly  rejected  all  vulgar 
artifices  for  producing  effect  upon  other  men  ;  no  majes- 
tical  pomp  of  words  characterized  his  teachings.  And 
he  was  ready  at  all  times  and  in  all  places  to  impart 
good  instruction ;  and  from  all  the  testimony  of  him  no 
man  was  more  emphatically  an  apostle  of  peace.3  It  is 
difficult,  indeed,  to  overcome  the  common-sense  con¬ 
clusion,  that  Apollonius,  whom  Philostratus  has  placed 


1  Nor  do  we  believe  them  acci¬ 
dental  or  imaginary ;  they  are  the 
same  old  familiar  frauds  handed 
down  from  all  time,  and  are  the 
common  property  of  all  miracle- 
mongers. 

2  Rev.  Albert  Reville’s  Pagan 
Christ ,  pp.  50,  51. 

3  “  Think  not  that  I  am  come  to 
send  peace  on  earth,”  said  Jesus, 
“  I  came  not  to  send  peace  but  a 


sword.”  Diabolical  as  the  avowed 
purpose  of  Jesus’  mission  is,  it  has 
been  fulfilled  to  the  letter.  Never 
did  a  man  utter  words  so  brimful 
of  truth  —  melancholy  as  it  is.  Never 
was  a  prediction,  whose  disastrous 
fulfillment  has  unfortunately  lasted 
without  intermission  from  the  time 
of  its  promulgation  to  the  present. 
From  the  very  establishment  of  this 
religion  of  Jesus  the  sword  has 


352 


APOLLONIUS 


before  us,  is  a  real  man,  a  corporeity,  and  not  a  spirit; 
he  walks  the  earth,  eats,  drinks,  and  sleeps  like  other 
men,  loves  and  hates  as  experience  teaches  us  is 
natural  for  man.  He  is  an  observer  of  natural  phe¬ 
nomena,  compares  and  speculates,  adores  nature,  birds, 
animals,  trees,  flowers,  not  destitute  of  humor  although 
of  great  gravity  and  dignity.  Everywhere  in  nature 
and  art,  with  the  Brahmins  of  India,  the  gymnosophists 
and  the  pyramids  of  Egypt,  he  found  something  to 
admire.  And  yet  there  are  miracles  mixed  up  with  his 
history,  but  they  are  only  incidental ;  they  by  no  means 
constitute  the  aggregate  of  his  life.  Unfortunately, 
says  the  Westminster  Review ,  April,  i860,  Apollonius 
of  Tyana  has  been  so  disguised  by  later  fiction,  that  it 
is  now  nearly  impossible  to  separate  the  true  from  the 
false  in  the  doctrines  and  noble  acts  ascribed  to  him. 
But  he  looms  up  as  the  last  great  asserter  of  the  creed 
of  ^Eschylus,  the  most  formidable  antagonist  of  the 
new  faith  said  to  have  been  preached  by  Paul  of  Tarsus. 

Here  ends  our  summary  of  the  leading  events  in  the 
life  of  Apollonius,  selected  from  the  writings  and 
manuscripts  as  they  have  descended  to  our  day,  and 
upon  which  solely  rests  his  claim  as  a  historical  charac¬ 
ter.  We  believe  the  sources  of  our  information  are 


remained  unsheathed  in  its  service, 
and  more  victims  have  been  sacri¬ 
ficed  to  its  manes  than  to  all  other 
causes  combined.  Lest  he  should 
be  misunderstood  concerning  his 
mission,  Jesus  reiterates  that  he 
came  to  send  fire  on  earth,  and 
strife ,  to  make  divided  households, 
fathers  against  sons,  mothers  against 
daughters,  and  that  under  the  new 


regime  “  a  man’s  foes  shall  be  those 
of  his  own  household.”  Boling- 
broke  says,  “The  scene  of  Chris¬ 
tianity  has  always  been  a  scene  of 
dissension,  of  hatred,  of  persecution, 
and  of  blood.”  Erasmus  says, 
“  Sanguine  fundata  est  ecclesia,  san¬ 
guine  crevit,  sanguine  succrevit, 
sanguine  erit.  ”—  Familiar  Colloquies 
of  Erasmus,  by  Bailey  (1877). 


OF  TYANA. 


353 


untainted,  the  witnesses  unimpeached,  and  the  channel 
through  which  the  narrative  has  descended  to  us  has 
never  been  questioned.  The  historians  are  men  of 
character,  and  not  without  literary  fame.  He  had 
traveled  more  extensively  than  any  man  of  his  day, 
and  that  he  was  a  man  of  no  mean  account  is  evident 
from  his  letters  addressed  to  kings,  rulers,  philosophers, 
societies,  and  the  first  men  of  his  time,  still  extant, 
preserved  in  the  works  of  Philostratus  and  Cujacius. 

For  many  centuries  after  his  death  a  halo  of  sanctity 
was  thrown  around  his  head,  and  he  was  worshiped 
as  a  god  in  many  parts  of  the  world.1  As  late  as  the 
fifth  century  we  know  of  one  Volusian,  a  pro-consul  of 
Africa,  descended  from  an  old  Roman  family,  still 
strongly  attached  to  the  religion  of  his  ancestors,  almost 
worshiping  Apollonius  as  a  supernatural  being. 

Not  only  did  Caracalla  build  him  a  temple,  but 
Alexander  Severus  held  him  in  such  esteem  that  he 
had  his  statue  in  his  private  closet.2  On  account  and 
out  of  respect  to  Apollonius,  Tyana  was  regarded  a 
sacred  city,  and  exempted  from  the  jurisdiction  of 
governors  sent  from  Rome.3  Pierre  Bayle,  in  Diction- 


1  History  of  the  Christian  Religion 
to  the  Year  Two  Hundred  (Charles 
B.  Waite,  A.  M.,  1881). 

2  Severe  ne  fut  pas  le  seul  em- 
pereur  qui  rendit  au  sage  de 
Tyane  des  honneurs  divins. —  Cf. 
Vie  d' Apollonius  de  Tyane ,  par 
Legrand  D’Aussy,  vol.  ii.  p.  286. 

3  The  great  body  of  Christians 
believe  that  paganism  was  immedi¬ 
ately  displaced  by  the  religion  of 
Christ.  But  it  must  be  remembered 

45 


that  for  hundreds  of  years  after 
Christianity  mounted  the  imperial 
throne  under  Constantine  (the  most 
arbitrary  that  ever  existed),  sacrifices 
were  still  made  to  the  gods  in  many 
of  the  temples  of  Greece,  at  some 
of  which  Christian  priests  presided 
and  to  a  great  extent  the  pagan 
temples  and  gods  were  supple¬ 
mented  only  by  utilizing  them  for 
Christian  worship,  and  this  accom¬ 
plished  by  imperial  decrees.  So 


354 


APOLLONIUS. 


naive  historique  et  critique  (2  vols.,  folio,  1696),  remarks 
that  Apollonius  was  worshiped  in  the  beginning  of 
the  fourth  century  under  the  name  of  Hercules,  and 
refers  for  his  authority  to  Vopiscus,  Eusebius,  and 
Marcellinus.1 

Albert  Reville  says,  “  the  universal  respect  in  which 
he  was  held  by  the  whole  pagan  world  testified  to  the 
deep  impression  which  the  life  of  this  supernatural 
being  had  indelibly  fixed  in  their  minds.”2 

that  such  a  revolution  is  taking 
place  about  him  to-day. —  Cf.  Julian 
apud  Cyrill ,  lib.  iii. ;  Laclantii  Ins- 
tut.  lib.  iii. ;  Eusebius,  Ecc.  Hist.  lib. 
iii.  iv. ;  The  Prophet  of  Nazareth,  a 
Critical  Inquiry,  by  Evan  P.  Mere¬ 
dith,  p.  220,  et  seq. 

1  ^Elius  Lampsidus,  A.  d.  350 
(author  Commodus,  Diadumenus, 
Heliogabalus,  and  Alexander  Sev¬ 
er  us),  states  that  Christ  was  wor¬ 
shiped  together  with  the  Arabian 
Orpheus  and  Apollonius,  these 
all  being  looked  upon  as  tutelary 
genii. 

2  Pagan  Christ. 


much  does  the  Christian  revolution 
lack  in  that  spirit  of  progress  in 
early  times  upon  which  ministers 
delight  to  dwell,  that  nothing  could 
force  it  forward  but  executions  and 
decrees.  It  went  into  the  conflict 
like  a  conscript  forced  to  the  front 
at  the  point  of  the  bayonet,  and 
all  the  importance  and  vitality  of 
Christianity  of  the  early  ages  which 
have  been  given  10  it  by  modern 
writers,  never  existed  in  reality.  The 
most  observing  man  was  as  uncon¬ 
scious  that  a  great  religious  revolu¬ 
tion  was  taking  place  around  him  at 
that  period,  as  the  most  stupid  is 


THE  END. 


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